Lost in a Haze
by Rainbowkittyblossomwings
Summary: Humans aren't supposed to enter the forest of the fae, because the fae are tricksters that will probably take their lives and are feared by the humans. However Mois finds herself lost in their lands anyway, to add to that to save her life and a fae prisoner she finds she has a soul-bond with Kululu, giving him power through lip contact. Can she survive her annoyed partner? AU.
1. Alice in Wonderland

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

 **Yeah, another story AU thing, putting the Personality Swap on temporary hiatus until I get more motivation for it. This is a sort of seelie court AU, with fairy and the fae folk.**

 **Will be 10 chapters, likely will move past T into M territory but not sure yet. Mostly going to be kurumois with the other characters briefly making appearances but will focus mostly on them and their relationship.**

* * *

The forest was large and vast, the trees big enough that nobody could see past them. And it was dark. At first there had been a twisting dirt road, but what was once a dirt path had died away into just long grass as if nobody had ever set foot on it before.

There had been rumors, legends of the entrance of the dark forest where the trees seemed to sing, the humans warned their people away from it, saying that it lured young innocent souls into its world, only to devour them and never let them return to the real world.

The land of the fairy folk, that was what it had been called. And although most humans avoided it, knowing they could not get out of its lost lands, some were still stupid enough to enter believing that they'd somehow manage to figure their way out, dreaming of taking the fairy folk's spoils or rich finery's. And then there were some who had just wandered into the fairy world by chance, not knowing that they had been imprisoned in the world of the fae.

Mois gripped the shawl around her, trying to keep warm. The air was cold in this forest, and everything was so quiet. Although there was the faint sound of a deep soothing music when she had entered the denser parts of the woods, the soothing sound of music that seemed to bare into her soul was gone. And now there was just silence.

 _The forest of the fae._ She knew the dark forest that people were warned about was the first opening to humans to the fae world, the village that she had come from had always warned travelers to stay away, telling of stories of the faeries, hauntingly beautiful people filled with magical power, they only cared for their own desires and felt that humans were just their playthings.

The fae were evil. That was a fact that humans embraced. "The fae are evil, they will trap you in their kingdom of deception and haunted beauty until you yourself don't even remember who you are," Mois recited what she knew.

She looked behind her and the forest seemed to swallow up where she had come from. There was no hope of going back, and she didn't know what was forward. She sighed.

"You could say, as lost as a chicken without its head?" Mois wondered. She knew she was in the forest of the fairy folk, it was obvious with how magic seemed to cling to the air. But what was more important to her was how lost she was.

She continued trying to walk forward, counting her steps so she could make it back. She recited what the villagers had said about the world of the fae, and what she knew. "Once you step into the forest you can not get out. Likely you will lose your mind, and possibly your life... Your sense of will we be gone before you can count to three..." Mois stepped three times, "One...Two...Three..."

She was still alone, but she wasn't willless. She smiled to herself, trying to hear the words and warnings in her head. "Humans were not meant to enter their world, and will slowly start losing themselves."

Although she was speaking aloud, she knew nobody was listening. Nobody could hear her because she was all alone, at least to her knowledge.

 _I suppose one of those fae could be stalking me, thinking I might make a nice meal._ Mois thought to herself. She didn't feel like anyone was stalking her, but fae had power...They could be unnoticed.

But for the last five hours she hadn't seen a single creature in the dark forest. Not a butterfly, not a squirrel, not anything. And she was beginning to feel lonely.

There was no path for her to go back to, no place to try to go, and although she tried to stay optimistic, five hours of wandering hadn't soothed her fears any and nervousness.

She clutched the basket she carried tightly. It didn't have any supplies in it besides a small meal that would surely help her once she got hungry. She pondered to herself how much like red riding hood she was- lost in a forest with only a shawl and a basket.

The forest was cold, and not the natural sort of snowy cold. It was a sort of cold darkness that chilled someone right down to the bone. Mois shivered for a moment, rubbing her tan hands together trying to generate a little bit of warmth. If she had been smart she would have brought mittens.

"I'm sure this forest will end eventually. I won't die wandering after all." Mois tried to keep optimistic, and continued walking along the path she had set out for herself.

* * *

Mois couldn't see the sky, the trees covered everything. She didn't know if it was night or day or how long she had kept walking in the tangled forest. Tired, her optimism was beginning to drain out from how lost she was.

She didn't know how long she had walked.

"Next place I see I'll take a nap." Mois declared as if to keep herself reminded of who she was. She needed to keep talking to herself, to make her remember that she had company.

As if on her declaration the trees seemed to open up with an open field, one with a small clear pool of water and flowers everywhere. She could see the sky, dark but illuminated by moonlight. The field wasn't just inviting, it seemed to beckon the young girl forward.

Maybe if Mois had listened to more legends about the fae and wasn't as naive as she was she would think against entering the field, but she entered it nonetheless.

She sat down nearest the pool of water first, cupping her hands and taking a drink of the crystal clear liquid, she smiled at herself seeing her reflection and squeezing her cheeks into a smile.

"I'm looking perky. I guess being in this place didn't do too much to my mood." Mois giggled to herself, playing with her blonde hair and trying to sweep it out of her eye. It would have really helped if she had a hairpin or something.

Mois sat by a large rock leaning against it after taking her drink. She then opened her basket and got comfortable, pulling out a small book she had brought, written by the human villagers about the fae.

She then read, since she had found herself in their forest anyway. "Faeries are heartless creatures, bewitchingly beautiful they steal the hearts of fair maidens." She flipped the pages looking at the pictures of the tall and lanky, beautiful people, not a blemish or fault on them. They didn't have wings, but they did have slightly pointed ears. Mois had heard that their wings were retractable and they rarely showed humans them, for fear it would make them too vulnerable. "The fae are known for having courts where they reside and play their political games. The seelie court. Five courts have been charted so far, Summer, Spring, Winter, Autumn and the Night court. The fae seem to rule these courts and generate changes from them, like the changes between seasons."

Looking at the pages made Mois all the more sleepy, and she slumped off the rock she was leaning on and onto the field of flowers.

She finally saw creatures around her, animals, and frogs in the pond, squirrels and those sort of things. She smiled, feeling safer.

"Another lost human has wandered into the fae kingdom." A frog on a lilly pad started to croak.

"How long do you think this one will last?" An owl hooted in the trees.

Mois couldn't feel her hand, she barely heard the animals talking in human voices around her. Her eyes were wide open, but slowly closing.

"Hmmm...She looks strong, she must be some sort of peasant from the village, see her loose clothing filled with awkward patchworks, her tanned skin, her messy blonde hair? She's a peasant, so maybe she has some common sense about her." One of the squirrels seemed to gossip.

"She looks yummy. Large enough to eat," A raccoon said, "The fae will find her, and then they'll devour the poor girl. Some of them like that, right?"

"Oh yes, some definitely eat humans. They might find her, she does look like an appetizing meal." The owl agreed, "Poor girl, maybe she would have lasted in this world, she seemed to be doing her research with that book in her hand."

"You see all owl, don't you? But you didn't hoot and warn her to not come here." The frog reminded. "You let her wander into the field of flowers, they always wander their prey into an eternal sleep. She'll die here."

"Likely she will. Oh well. Another human devoured by the forest. I wonder what legends will say about her in the human village." The owl agreed.

"Who knows? Humans bother me. They never listen to the animals and hear their voices. She deserved to die." A mouse agreed.

Mois's eyes closed and she was sound asleep.

* * *

Mois's dreams were at first cold and fearful, about as cold and fearful as she felt, but slowly they descendent into a nice embrace keeping her asleep.

 _Ku, ku, ku, ku, ku._

The laughter rung in Mois's head abruptly ending her dreams. The dream that she had been having shattered around her, and she woke up.

The grass was long, vines were on the trees and the sky was bright with sun. The book she had by her side was ragged and only the hard cover had survived, the rest of the pages had faded away, melting away.

 _How long did I sleep?_ Mois wondered rubbing her head. The flowers had grown around her, tangling her up as if it was a blanket. Her body was fine, clean and as perfect as usual, glimmering in the sunlight, and her clothing seemed untouched, but it had been clear that she had slept more than a month at least.

She wouldn't have been surprised by how the forest changed if she had slept five hundred years. She laughed to herself though. "Don't be silly, Mois! You didn't sleep that long!" She slapped her cheeks and got up.

Her basket was long gone and her shawl had fallen off her body and unraveled away. Looking down at the flowers and inspecting them, Mois realized that it was clear that the lovely things sent out a chemical that made people sleepy.

She jumped away quickly leaving the field. The forest didn't swallow it back up or change, perhaps it didn't care about her any more.

 _How long was I out?_ Mois wondered. Was there a chance she could have slept there for ever? Her dreams were so sweet, like honey, and only that abrupt laughter in her head had woken her out of it.

She tried to listen to see if she could hear it again. But it didn't seem real. _Likely it was just a delusion of mine. Maybe a blessing by the gods to wake me up._ It was a hopeful sound after all.

Mois tried not to focus too much on the laughter. All sorts of mysteries happened in the forest of the fae after all, and magic. But Mois knew deep down the sound that was in her mind hadn't been a blessing by the gods. It was much too sinister and dark.

 _But it saved you._ Mois reminded herself. _From what could have been an eternity of dreams or nightmares._ It was a spark of hope. Maybe something was looking out for her.

And Mois continued on her journey.

* * *

Eventually Mois came upon something different, something unusual. The forest had stopped twisting itself to be all the same and Mois could now see that she was getting somewhere, despite that somewhere probably being farther than the human village.

What Mois came upon looked even less populated than the forest. Despite the forest being lonesome, Mois could clearly see that it had been touched by hands of some sort of beings before. There were signs that people had been there. But the new area she entered looked like it hadn't been touched by human hands in hundreds of years, it was just completely natural and over grown.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Mois stepped forward to the overgrown pathway of what looked like a grove. A large slab of stone was hanging from a tree branch over head, easy enough for her to read.

The words didn't look like they were carved, instead they burned with a bright light as if made by magic.

 _Only those seeking death may enter here._ The sign read. _Be warned, those who have sinned and are impure will be burned alive._

It was the first time Mois had seen any sort of sign in this forest. "Only those seeking death..?" So the sign warned of danger.

She looked behind her briefly to see if the path she had come on had disappeared. It was still waiting for her to go back to it.

So she had a choice. _Do I want to risk my life for my curiosity?_ Mois wondered. _What did other humans do when they came upon this? Or did any other humans ever come upon this...?_

She thought for only a second and then stepped forward. She was naive after all. _Oh well, although I'm not seeking death, I feel like if I do things honestly and purely I'll have a just quest. I need to be true to myself and explore things that call to me._ Although perhaps this wasn't the best advice, Mois followed it anyway.

She walked forward, stepping over vines of the over grown path. The path was long, but it wasn't twisted.

And Mois continued onward.

* * *

She entered a large grove that looked like it hadn't been touched by anyone in hundreds of years. Looking around, the thing that caught her eye the most was the large two boulders in the middle of the grove, wound together with a chain, the chains were black and the cleanest thing about the grove, glittering as if they were sparkling tar.

In the middle of the two chains, a man stood, the thing the rock was chaining. His eyes were closed and at first Mois didn't know if he was alive.

All he wore was black tattered pants, rags covering some of his arms but his shirt long sense dissolving. His chest and face were perfect, however, unblemished and a sickeningly sweet pale. His ears were pointed and his hair was long and straight going down to his waist, a deep shade of royal purple.

His face was absolutely beautiful, and Mois knew immediately that what she was staring at was one of the fairy folk. There was no mistake about it.

She stepped forward slowly. The man didn't stir.

 _Is he dead..? But fae are immortal creatures aren't they?_ Instead of fear, Mois had worry. This poor creature was imprisoned.

A twig snapped as she stepped on it. The man's head tilted and he looked up.

"Oh that's a relief! You're alive!" Mois breathed a sigh of relief smiling to herself. She didn't know why she was so worried about his life, but even if the creature was dangerous she still worried for it. Maybe she had hoped he had been alive because she was lonely. She didn't know how long she had been lost in the forest of the fae and was desperately seeking companionship.

"Ku, ku, ku..." The man laughed. Mois froze for a second at the laughter.

 _The laughter from my dreams! So...Was I supposed to come here?_ She wondered.

The fae sniffed for a second. "You don't sound like one of us- a fae, any one of my kind wouldn't be stupid enough to enter this place, so you must be a lost little human. Ku. How fun." His mouth twisted into a sinister grin, as if he was mocking her.

"Can...Can you not tell I'm a human?" Mois asked. She could see him looking in her direction now, his green eyes were as beautiful as she had been warned about, they didn't seem quite human and seemed to suck them in.

The fae didn't answer, but he glanced downwards towards something on the ground as if scanned the ground for something.

Mois spotted a pair of glasses- slightly broken. _Oh...He can't see me._ Mois realized. _I thought fae were perfect though, not sickly, no faults. What kind of fae has bad eyesight?_

"You're not near enough for me to smell you." The fae lied, badly, "But I bet you smell delicious, young human. My kind would probably eat you up in a second, devour your soul and what not. I'm already drooling from thinking about it." He paused for a second, "I bet you're drooling too though. A dumb human like you is probably swooning from my beautiful body, seduced by my charm."

Mois was actually hiding her eyes, quite embarrassed. _It's-It's the first time I've seen a guy shirtless!_ She tried to keep the heat in her face down, she knew he couldn't see her, but it was still embarrassing.

"You going to run, little human? It won't help you. Once you've entered the land of the fae it's doubtful that you'll escape with your life. But hey, you're lucky. You've seen my gloriousness after all!" The fae was a jerk. An egotistical jerk despite his chains, mocking Mois's pain.

Mois was quiet, but she started walking forward towards him anyway.

The fae could hear her getting closer. "Oh? You going to try to kill me? Nah, you seem to dumb to do something like that. Too spineless at the very least. Or have you been that seduced by my beauty that you're just being drawn closer? Ku, ku, ku. I've heard that happen to some humans."

He heard her crouching. _Maybe she's getting a large stick to try to club me to death. I probably ticked her off terribly. Still it's the first time anyone's entered this place for a while, maybe she'll cure my boredom for a moment._ He grinned wickedly. Boredom was the worst thing for something like him.

Instead he felt something touch his face and he was able to see. Mois smiled at him.

"Your glasses were on the ground so I picked them up for you." She gave a pure smile.

It sent chills down his bones.

"Ku, what a dumb human." He was glad he could see though. They had fallen off during the first hundred years of his imprisonment and since his hands were chained above him he couldn't reach them. He had been desperate to get them back, and despite how dirty they were and cracked he was thankful for them.

He wasn't the type to be grateful though. "So why'd you get into the fae lands, little human?" He tried to use the name soothingly, mockingly, "Was it for glory to slay a fae? Hunting for a family that's starving? Wanting riches? Wanting to marry a fae lord, or are you just the type that got lost out of chance like a naive idiot?"

Mois frowned for a minute. The fae was able to quickly decipher which it was. She was the dumb type getting lost from chance.

"Ku, how interesting! I'm glad you happened upon me so I can give you all sorts of faulty advice on whatever useless quest you've started to escape this place. How much fun!" He laughed again, wickedly.

Mois looked at him, really looked at him. Despite him being imprisoned he was using this chance to be a jerk to her and mock her as if the imprisonment wasn't even bothering him. Clearly it was though, he was incredibly skinny for a fae and looked tired, his looking like they were in quite a bit of pain. His pride as a fae probably stopped him from asking for help though.

 _I've heard fae are very proud. If you help one their law compels them to do you a favor, they're in your debt until the favor is returned._ Mois reminded herself.

It wasn't the aspect of a favor that appealed to her though to help the fae. She honestly felt sorry for him. _The poor thing is imprisoned and it looks like he's been for a long time...At least three hundred years at least._

"Is...Is there anything I can do to help?" Mois tugged at the chains at the fae's arms, but they were powerfully bound, it looked like only a specific sort of magic could break them.

The fae glanced at her as if sizing her up, trying to figure out what kind of person she was, she was obviously the naive sort.

"Little lost human~." The fae hummed his pet name that he had given her, "You're a dumb one, aren't you?" He sneered.

"Why do you say that?" Mois asked.

"Because fae are dangerous. Don't you know that? Didn't the humans teach you to be afraid because we're better than you? Once I'm free I could do whatever I want with you, I could kill you, I could seduce you and wind you around my little finger. You would be mine to do whatever I please with. That's the difference in our power. Or are you so dumb that you're not afraid? Ku, ku, ku?" The fae asked.

His threats didn't do a thing against Mois as she continued to tug at the chains. "But I'm not the one in trouble right now. Even if you're fae, you're still chained up. And it looks painful..." Mois trailed off. "Please tell me what I can do to help you."

"Tch." The fae scoffed, "I don't want your help. Get off me. I bet you know that if you save me, because you're a human I'm indebted to you. And I don't want to be indebted to anybody!" The fae was being childish, but Mois had been warned that fae were some of the most selfish and childish creatures around.

Mois's hands dropped off of his chains. "So you want me to leave...?" She asked curiously.

The fae bit his lip. He didn't look like he wanted her to leave. She was the first interesting company he had in years and if there was thing he was desperate for was a cure for boredom. "I...I didn't say that." he had a quiet voice, "Maybe you could stay for at least a moment. Maybe you'll die in this grove. That would solve the problem of you coming here. Little human, tell me stories of your adventures. That would help me. I'm curious why you decided to enter this place." He glanced at her, expressing his curiosity.

Mois smiled. If there was one thing she could relate to it was curiosity. "My name is Mois, and as you guessed I got lost here by chance." She did what he asked, "Now since I told you something, you should tell me something. Fae care about fairness, right?"

"Not all fae." The fae groaned. "I surely don't. Ku, ku, ku." But he looked like he wanted to keep Mois there, she interested him. "Fine, little human..." He still called her by the pet name he had dubbed her, "I will tell you my name, that way if you die here it can be the last thing on your mind. I am Kululu."

Mois curtsied. "Pleasure to meet you."

Kululu groaned. "You've worn out your novelty. You can leave now." He ordered.

Mois shook her head. "I want you to tell me how to get the chains off of you. I want to help free you, I won't force you to be indebted to me, it just hurts to see you like this." She frowned.

She was an honestly good person. Kululu hated good people. _Oh how I've fallen. A human pitying me. Disgusting._

"Don't you have magic power though? Don't fae have magic they can use? Shouldn't you be able to break the chains?" Mois asked, trying to use her knowledge of fae to a benefit.

Kululu snarled at her, not wanting her to state the obvious. "I don't need you thinking you're smarter than me. Leave or I swear the first thing I'll do when I get out is hunt you. _Human._ " He snarled. His pet name was gone.

Mois looked a little started at his anger. Perhaps he didn't have magic. She backed away for a moment.

There was a large growl in the background. Kululu and Mois glanced towards the entrance and a bull like monster ran forward, maybe thirty feet tall. Fire was on the tips of its horns and its eyes were hollow filled with hatred- evil.

"Ah yes, my keeper. Knew you were going to die soon, human. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu glanced at the bull.

"I-is that your guardian? The warden imprisoning you?" Mois asked.

"Yep. And I believe it's under orders to kill anyone who enters here, so run as fast as you can, little human." Kululu grinned, "Ku, ku, ku."

Mois looked a little frightened. "I'm not very good at battles..." She admitted.

"Even if you were, you'd have no chance against a monster like that." Kululu told her, as the bull tried to figure out where Mois was. She hadn't started running yet.

Instead she turned to Kululu and continued to try to tug at his chains, desperate to free him even if it cost her, her life.

"Hey, why aren't you running, little human? You'll die here if you don't leave." Kululu hoped she'd get off of him soon, or else he'd also probably die there. Fae didn't age, but if you stabbed them in the heart they still died.

Mois tugged at the chains, eventually even trying to bite at them. Nothing worked. Kululu just sighed, pathetically mocking her all the while while she was struggling. He kept an eye on the large beast that was trying to smell her out.

"Fae are known as tricksters. Even if you free me, you won't be able to save yourself." Kululu reminded.

"You could say, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it? But right now I want to free you." Mois frowned, she continued tugging. The bull finally found where she was and was gathering up energy to charge.

Kululu would be killed too in the blast. He swallowed, hard, realizing he had to help her if he wanted to live. She was such a do-gooding idiot that she wasn't going to leave despite the danger.

"You won't be able to break the chains. The only thing that can break them is my magic, they're a special material and that's the only thing that can hurt them." Kululu confessed.

"Then break yourself out!" Mois begged him.

"I can't. My powers have been suppressed by a curse, henceforth the reason I haven't freed myself yet." Kululu admitted, irritated that he even had to give out this information.

Mois looked at him, narrowing her eyes. So there was really no way to save him. She looked saddened. Her hands left the cuffs around him, but she made no effort to leave. She knew if she left the grove likely the forest would swallow it up and she'd never see Kululu again.

The bull dug up dirt, readying itself to charge towards the two of them. Time was running out.

"So there's really nothing I can do..." Mois realized.

Kululu was getting desperate, despite Mois's realization she was making no effort to leave him and the bull was getting closer.

"There is a way I can use my power." Kululu quickly admitted, "I just haven't been able to make the contract before. All I have to do is sap someone's soul energy, borrowing it and making it mine so I can tap into my power. It requires...Help from another person." He seemed to regard the word 'help' with much distaste.

"Why haven't you done it before then?" Mois asked.

"Because if I soul-bonded with someone, I wouldn't be able to free myself from them until I broke my curse, so I haven't attempted to do it. I can only borrow energy off of one person and out of my options, I would prefer if it wasn't someone dim-witted like you." Although Kululu didn't have any other options or offers and Mois was really his only chance for freedom he still wasn't too happy about this.

The bull was getting closer it was running towards them- once it hit it would definitely kill.

"However I'd rather soul-bond with you then die, so if you're going to free me do it. Give me your energy." Kululu demanded. He had his priorities straight though. "We might be stuck together, but I don't see an alternative if either of us wants to live."

There was still a chance for Mois to run, at least far enough that she would be the only one killed and Kululu would be safe. But Kululu knew already that she wasn't the type of person to leave.

"How?" Mois asked desperately. She didn't know how to form the contract or transfer her energy.

"Touch me with direct skin-to-skin contact, thinking of transferring energy to me. You have to have a clear image of your aura and energy, so concentrate!" Kululu was panicking as the bull got closer, as he tried to describe to a human how to form her own soul energy.

Mois thought for a brief moment. She didn't exactly know what kind of skin-to-skin contact a soul-bond needed but in all the stories she had heard, there was only one way to transfer energy that she knew of. She didn't know any other way.

So she quickly stood up and pulled Kululu down into a kiss, pressing her lips against him much to his shock.

Kululu's eyes were wide as this human girl who he had just met desperately kissed him to save their lives, determined to help and giving him a pure and honest kiss. He didn't really focus much on the sensation, just that it was weird that she had thought that was the way the necessary way for skin contact.

 _I guess she's more of an idiot than I thought, but still its kind of amusing, I guess some human legends do say that kissing is the only way to transfer energy, or some sort of dumb romance book might have given her the impression. Or maybe she's just seduced by my charm._ Kululu thought to himself, still he could feel her power and energy drain into him, and because of that the kiss was pleasant, and the way she kissed him was just adorable.

Kululu didn't know humans could be that cute.

The chains around Kululu broke as a black energy seeped through his pores, shattering his chains. He didn't give himself time to rub his hands and instead gazed at the oncoming bull, pulling Mois behind him so she wouldn't get caught in the blast.

She was now a valuable resource to him after all. The bond between them had been formed.

"I will enjoy this...Ku, ku, ku. I've been waiting to kill you for five hundred years." Kululu laughed. He put his hands out and sparks flew from them, as if like an ocean wave of magic the bull was halved in two by his powers.

He slumped over and there was a loud crashing noise from how large it was.

Kululu smirked and finally gave himself the privilege of rubbing his hurt wrists. After five hundred years...The chains were finally off.

Mois was hiding behind his back, peering over his shoulder. She grabbed his arm proud of him.

"A bit touchy for a human, aren't you?" Kululu asked amused. _Shouldn't she be more scared of me? Know of our differences and that I'm of a higher status than her? I'm a powerful fae after all._

Of course, maybe she was grabbing onto him out of fear. Kululu could understand that. She did almost die and it would be normal for her to be swooning over his powers.

"I'm so happy!" She said instead, "I'm so happy you're safe and free!" She grinned.

There was a lump in Kululu's stomach by just how pure this girl was. Did she not think of anyone else but herself? She should have been dead by now if that was the case. The fae world was selfish and didn't reward those good of heart.

Kululu didn't really know what to say at someone thinking more of him than their own life. Was he happy? Annoyed? He didn't know. _Guess I'm stuck with this human for now though._ "We killed it, but you still technically saved me...So unfortunately I'm in your debt..." He didn't like to admit it, "Not like I can leave you anyway now that we're soul bonded. I need you if I want to be able to use my powers and not be useless. At least until I break my curse. Man, I'm pathetic. The only fae probably that needs a human!" He was ranting, but Mois was swaying from side to side.

He glanced at her as she fell, fainting. She had given him way too much of her soul energy. Kululu instinctively caught her, as her eyes closed.

He looked down at the human in his arms, who was probably just as tired as he was. She may not have looked very interesting in appearance, an average normal human filled with physical flaws, she didn't have the perfect sculpted body of the fae, but perhaps it was her flaws that made her look so interesting so unusual and unique. Her clothes were those that were obviously as average as any human villager indicating she came from a low class, and her skin was much darker than his and her blonde hair was just a kind of average blonde not anything interesting or unusual, just uniquely human. However she did have somewhat of a figure and she looked well-muscled as if she worked in the fields. But really it was her eyes and smile that interested Kululu.

They really told what kind of person Mois was, telling all about her personality from just her face. Her face was unique, cute and obviously human, but something about it attracted Kululu, perhaps it was the ignorant and naive kindness that was communicated in her face, or how her eyes seemed to have a language of their own. Maybe he was just looking at her lips a little too much, the lips that had previously been on his.

She had tasted sweet.

"What am I going to do with you, little human?" Kululu wondered to himself as he held her, not letting her fall to the ground. He was much stronger than her, even though he hadn't eaten for a long long time, her human weight was nothing for him.

He was stuck with her now and he couldn't get rid of her, but being trapped with Mois seemed at least more interesting than being chained.

He really did wonder though what he was going to do with her. She was obviously scatter-brained and a little bit dumb putting herself in danger just because she wanted to help someone, and ideally she wouldn't be the sort of person he'd be stuck with.

But still...He was thankful.

* * *

Kululu had carried Mois out of the grove. She was still sleeping, but he had taken her to a safer part of the forest as he regained his strength, sitting against a tree. Now that a fae was with her, the forest wouldn't hurt her, and he watched her sleep as he nibbled on some food.

 _What should I do with her? I know I made the soul bond out of desperation and I'm happy to be free, but I really don't want to be partnered up with her forced to listen to her childish whims._ Kululu thought to himself as he looked down at her. He had allowed her to rest her head on his lap while she slept. He didn't want them getting separated after all.

 _I could abandon her somewhere. Like in a field of flowers to sleep as I try to figure out how to break my curse. Or I could kill her as she sleeps and then she wouldn't be a problem for me._ Kululu thought to himself. _But no, that wouldn't benefit me in the least bit...After all if I run into another fae I'd have a hard time if they decided to attack me. I can't even invent after all unless I have someone else's soul energy._ He frowned. His intelligence did him no good if his hands froze up from the curse.

 _Wish I could trick her to run off some cliff._ Kululu thought to himself. He day-dreamed various schemes to get rid of the kind idiot he was stuck with. But nothing would help his condition.

Finally, he decided on what he would do to her. The answer became quite obvious after much thought. _Ah! I'll deliver her to the red queen._ Kululu decided.

The red queen was the most powerful of all the fae, she ruled the entire fae kingdom and was its guardian. No fae could go against her because if the land didn't have her standing guard and lending her energy to the castle, it would die. But rumors were nasty about her, that she was a horrible person who enjoyed eating human children, devouring hearts whole, and killing fae just for the fun of it, taking off their wings. Kululu had never met her so he didn't know if these rumors were true, but people jokingly had called her the mad queen on occasion.

Either way, if he delivered Mois to her as a gift she'd happily accept her. _And with her power she might be able to break my curse, all I have to do is deliver Mois in return._

After all humans were the red queen's favorite meal. Kululu grinned to himself wickedly, rubbing his hands together.

So it was decided, that would be his plan. _I'll act like her friend then, for now, being in her debt. But I'll lead her to the red queen until the queen snuffs out her life._ "Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu laughed wickedly.

All he needed to do was somehow lead Mois away from the exit to the forest, since she was lost, and lure her further into fae lands. He could do that. After all he had warned her that fae were tricksters.

He wasn't the 'friend' type anyway. This evil plan suited him much more.

"I'll be your guardian, Mois." Kululu whispered, playing with the girl's hair and stroking it off of her ear as if to whisper his confession to the sleeping girl. "I've heard humans get lost in our lands time and time again. And I'll lead you, but not in the way you want. Ku, ku, ku~. And then when the time is right I'll feed you to the red queen. And you won't be a thorn in my side anymore." Kululu smiled looking down at the peacefully sleeping and naive girl.

She was so peaceful. So ignorant. He wasn't surprised how dumb she was. Humans were very dumb after all, but what did honestly surprise him was how innocent she was. Most humans cared about themselves and their lives more than others, but Mois was different. Her dumbness came from naivety mostly.

She was innocent. Kululu had never seen such a pure and innocent human before. But innocence wasn't always a good thing. It just meant people could be more easily betrayed, coated in the blood of their mistakes.

Still, she was cute, especially with how confused she had been and assuming that skin-to-skin contact meant lip contact, which it clearly did not. Kululu didn't mind at all though her mistake, he was a pervert anyway and could have a lot of fun with her confusion.

"She's maybe 10% cute." Kululu decided, "But no more." He wouldn't give her any added attractiveness in his mentality.

He stroked her hair absent-mindfully. He had never been this close to someone so peaceful, it was kind of relaxing, even though he was planning to get rid of her.

"You're lucky you're pretty, Mois." Kululu laughed, "Because for now I'll keep you around gaining your beautiful trust until it benefits me most to get rid of you. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois smiled peacefully in her sleep.

She had no idea what was going to happen to her. No clue at all.

* * *

 **I'm working on my detail for this story, so please add suggestions for how I can describe things.**

 **Please review and tell me what you think!**

 **I usually include something of what each character is in this AU, but since they're spread out each chapter I won't include that as much, but maybe just them starting out.**

 **Mois- Lost human.**

 **Kululu-Fae**

 **Please review!**


	2. The Fruit of the Fae

**Yeah...I changed this story to M, because I'm pretty sure it's too sexy for young eyes. Sorry guys. It's an M rated AU now.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

The breeze was soft against Mois's cheeks as she stirred awake. Shielding her eyes from the sunlight, she noticed that the forest appeared much calmer, more welcoming, perhaps it welcomed her now that she had a fae companion, perhaps it knew that the poor girl was doomed.

Either way it didn't seem so lonely.

"Morning, sleeping beauty. Ku, ku, ku." The fae man that Mois had released the previous day, glanced down at her with a teasing smile. He was standing above her, looking down at her as if to inspect her, as if she was a specimen.

"Are you feeling better?" Mois asked, sitting up. He still hadn't located a shirt, much to her disapproval. But it wasn't like clothes were hanging around somewhere on a tree branch. She tried to shy away from his gaze.

Kululu paused for a moment, staring at her as if thinking. His goal was simple- Make her remain in the land of the fae so that she wouldn't drag him out. But his companion was clearly a lost human who's main goal was to leave this place.

There was a simple way to get her to stay, to get her imprisoned in the world. And it involved food. There was a rule in the land of the fae, one that was quite sacred and magical, Kululu knew that some humans knew about it or some sort of animal had warned them, but he wasn't sure if Mois knew. No matter, it would be best if she didn't know until it was too late.

The rule was that anyone who was an outsider who ate the fae food would belong to the fae that the food had belonged too. Many high lords of courts used this on humans to imprison their soul into their land. Other fae were mostly immune to this rule, unless they accepted food that directly belonged to a high lord, but most fae weren't that foolish.

Even if humans did know of this sacred magical rule, it would be hard for them to refuse the fae food. After all fae food was much different than human food, it was something so beautifully filled with desire that anyone who saw it that hadn't experienced it before, their mouth would start salivating. It was filled with raw desire and the most succulent juices.

Kululu of course had eaten already, scavenging for food, picking various fruits and hunting animals. After five hundred years of not eating, he had worked up quite an appetite. But he had also grabbed something for Mois, knowing that once she accepted it she would be unable to leave his world. He was a master of manipulation and trickery, and it was about time for Mois to see that instead of looking at him like he was an injured animal. It was insulting.

"Yep. It's nice to have those cuffs off." Kululu twisted his arms, stretching them, fine with showing off his body, knowing the human girl would probably ogle him. He knew of his beauty and he loved using it to seduce people. It gave him such a boost of power.

However Mois, just shied away some more. Likely she wasn't used to shirtless men and was way too innocent. It was infuriating, but also very amusing. It would be fun to break her.

"I'm glad of that." Mois hummed, sitting up. She was also glad to not be as alone. It was nice to have company even if she didn't know much about her companion.

Kululu sat down next to her. "I brought you something. While you were out I got myself a snack, so I thought you might be hungry too." It was hard to appear like he was helpful, because he really didn't care about her well being, but he tried to give her a friendly smile and he pulled out an orange to show off to her.

The orange was big and plump, round and a dark red-ish orange. It's peel was glowing with a sort of ravishing desire, juice seeming to drip onto Kululu's fingers. It was probably the most beautiful orange that Mois had ever seen in her life, and it just seemed to call in a seductive voice and whisper 'eat me'.

Still though, Mois gave him a polite smile. "I'm not hungry. But thank you anyway."

Kululu's eye twitched for a moment as she drew her eyes of off of the sweet fruit. His mouth twisted into a grin. _This girl is smarter than I first thought. She won't say it to my face but she knows I was trying to imprison her. And it takes a fair amount of will power to refuse a gift of fae food._ Her eyes weren't even looking at the orange any longer.

"You won't mind if I eat it them, would you? Ku?" Kululu asked. He didn't care if Mois was smarter than he had first given her credit for. He would break her.

"Sure. You must be hungry after all." Mois agreed.

Kululu peeled the orange open, making sure to show her how ripe with juice the fruit was. He did not eat it cleanly, he ate it was a ravishing ferocity, letting the juice drip onto his beautiful body and fingers.

"You sure you don't want any of it?" Kululu asked as Mois politely watched him. Even if she were just to get a few drops off his finger, that would count. He sucked lightly on his finger, making sure that she was watching. "You could try a bit." He suggested.

Mois shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, Kululu. But I'm fine."

He tried not to glare as she used his name like they were on some sort of friendly terms. Sure, she was now the only tool he had for using his powers, but she wasn't a friend of his. She was just a lost human that he had found just a day prior.

"All right, suit yourself...Mois." He tried to use her name as well in a sort of seductive voice, husky, filled with more raw desire. It would do something to her, right?

She eyed a bird like she hadn't heard.

Kululu was already infuriated by this girl. He couldn't wait to see the red queen eat her alive. He liked his lips, imagining her begging for forgiveness and regretting her innocence. He couldn't wait for her to be torn from limb to limb.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, why were you imprisoned?" Mois asked, glancing at Kululu.

"Like I'd tell you." Kululu was already bored of trying to seduce her to eat. He instead crossed his legs and took up his normal, jerk like tone. She was too innocent to pick up on his heavy seduction.

Mois frowned. "All right." She respected his privacy, and tried to change the subject and make other conversation. "Will we be traveling together from now on?" She asked, her voice carrying a hint of hopefulness. "I just...I mean...Wouldn't it be most beneficial to accompany me since we have a sort of soul-bond?"

Kululu looked at her quizzically. Him needing her energy for power now wouldn't be exactly what he called a soul-bond. They didn't share energy or have any sort of connection besides Kululu using her. He was like a parasite. "I don't know if I'd call my curse a soul-bond." That was getting too close, "Why do you think it's something like that? Ku, ku, ku. Read one too many romance novels or something?" He teased.

Mois just pointed at him and his chest. He glanced down since Mois was now actually looking at it.

In magical letters, dyed a deep purple as if etched into his skin was the name 'Angol Mois' it seemed to hover on his skin and he hadn't noticed the new tattoo he had.

Mois pulled down the collar of her shirt a little, so he could see her collar bone. "It's on me too. Your name." She told him, "When we made the bond I felt the place burn, as if it was etched onto me."

Kululu's name was in a bright yellow-ish orange, but it was on her body nonetheless, marking her as his.

"When we shared energy and made the contract, I suspect that our souls were connected. Like a soul-bond." Mois explained quietly. Kululu's jaw was wide open like he hadn't known this before.

"No...No..." Kululu just shook his head. He didn't want to be connected to a human. He looked around nervously, looking for water. There was a stream near them and he reached down in the water, scooping it up and trying to scrub the name off of him.

It was burning with innocence. He had to wash away the sin. "I can't be bonded to a human! That's completely pathetic. I can't have a _human's_ name marked on me." He didn't mind as much his name on Mois. It showed she was his. But her name on him made things much more equal.

And he couldn't be on equal terms with a human.

He desperately tried to scrub the name off until even a fae's skin like his was raw. But the name remained glowing as he touched it.

Mois giggled for a moment. "You're a funny guy, aren't you?" It was kind of cute how nervous Kululu had become when he realized her name was on his body.

Kululu sent a glare her way. Nothing about this situation was funny. But instead of running and hiding, she stuck out her tongue as if they were having some sort of childish teasing match.

Not only did she not fear him like a good human should, but she felt friendly towards him, like she could have fun with him on equal terms.

Kululu hated this. He continued scrubbing desperately trying to do anything he could to take the mark that symbolized their soul bond off. He even tried scratching it off.

"That's enough." Mois said firmly. No human had a right to hold a firm voice against him, order him around. But Mois moved forward and pulled his hand away from the mark to stop him from bleeding. "We don't want you getting hurt. It's all right. If you don't like the mark, as soon as possible we can try to find you a shirt to cover it up."

Kululu looked at her and glared, coldly. So that was her scheme! To try to get him to put a shirt on. _You've won this round little human. Fine, I suppose I will cover up as soon as possible, instead of flaunting myself._ He did have to admire and respect that she was using this for her own purposes though. It was definitely something he would do.

He sighed and slumped against a tree. "I...I was just surprised. I suppose it is sort of like a soul-bond then." He admitted.

Mois offered her hand to him, as if trying to support him. He didn't take it. "So...Would you prefer to travel together for now then? You haven't answered my question yet if we'll be going our separate ways or traveling together."

"We'll travel together for now." Kululu agreed. He couldn't afford to let her wander off. He needed her, whether he liked it or not. "You're lucky little human. I don't know if any humans have managed to find themselves traveling with a fae as incredible as I, after all I have incredible power." Kululu boasted.

"When you're able to use it." Mois snarkily said under her breathe.

Kululu glanced at her. He hoped that was his influence making her snarky. "Most humans would say it was a gift from the gods that they found themselves under my protection. After all, until I free myself from my curse, I'll have to stick with you and keep you out of trouble. So I suppose I'm like a guardian to you." Kululu would protect her from everything else that might put her in trouble, but he would be very happy to be the real evil in Mois's life, and sell her away to the red queen to free himself. She wouldn't suspect it at all that her very own guardian was plotting her demise.

Mois smiled brightly at him. "And I do find myself lucky! It will be nice having some company. A friend." Mois was optimistic.

Kululu frowned and stood up. "A guardian." He corrected, "After all, I am sort of in your debt for freeing me. But in no way are we equals or friends." He tried to keep the insult out of his voice, remind himself that he needed to trick Mois, to appear friendly. "You're mine now. So I'll keep you out of harms way." He bowed, offering his hand so she could take it and stand up to be on their way.

She gladly took his hand, wrapping her fingers around his hand. For some reason, despite the fact that they had kissed before, the gesture of holding her hand for a brief moment still felt intimate, and sort of awkward and embarrassing. Still, Kululu helped her up like a gentleman.

"Thank you." Mois appreciated the politeness, and that he was acting sort of kind, like a gentleman. It was much different than her first impression of him. She had kind of thought he was a bit of a jerk.

"So you know my story, about my curse and all, but you haven't told me yours, my little human." Kululu grinned, "How'd you find yourself in the fae kingdom?" He asked, looking at her.

Information on her was what he needed, he needed to trick her into staying in the kingdom longer instead of searching for the way out. They had to go deeper into the fae lands, not on the outskirts.

Mois looked up at him, meeting his eyes for a moment. There was a moment of silence as their eyes met and Kululu felt himself shiver at her eye contact. Like there was some sort of pit in his stomach. Something was unsettling about her looking at him, perhaps it was her wide-eyed innocence, or the quietness of how she seemed to look at him, as if deep into his soul. Her eyes were golden and probably the most out of place feature about her, the most beautiful, glittering thing.

"Do you need more energy?" Mois asked after a moment of silence, changing the subject.

Kululu had picked up on the subject change, but he ignored it at the premise that he would be able to take more energy. "Nah, not at the moment." He admitted. He glanced at her though, "You...Do know that to transfer energy you don't have to kiss me though, right? Ku, ku, ku." He was amused at how she had kissed him though.

Mois looked startled, surprised. Like she honestly hadn't known. "W-what..?" She stuttered for a moment, "But all the stories I've read said that kissing is the way to transfer strength and energy! You...You mean I didn't have to kiss you...?" She asked to her shock.

"Nope, you didn't have to." Kululu grinned. He liked seeing her uncomfortable. _So it was romance novels that warped her brain._

Mois covered her face, blushing deeply at her mistake. "I-I'm s-so...So sorry!" She apologized, stuttering.

Kululu pat her head. Sweeping her bangs out of her eyes, to try to not let her cover her face. He liked to see her embarrassed. Her kindness was something infuriating, but her embarrassment was quite cute and he enjoyed it. He peeled her fingers off of her cheeks and looked at her, with an amused smile as she just turned deeper and deeper red.

 _No reason to not have fun with our journey before I deliver her to the red queen._ Kululu decided. She was quite cute after all, and Kululu didn't have any real complaints about her kissing him. Actually he found it deliciously amusing, and a sort of alluring action. Kissing was fun after all, and Kululu didn't deny that he was a bit of a pervert.

In fact, he kind of wanted to kiss her right now, just to get her back for all that rejecting his advances that she had done earlier, as if she wasn't seduced by his amazing body!

 _Yeah. Lip contact works fine for transferring energy._

"Unfortunately for you, Mois." Kululu grinned, "You made the contract through lip contact. Meaning the only way from now on that we can transfer energy is through kissing, because that was how you formed the contract. It could have been something different but you chose kissing. And now I'm just a poor victim of your delirious desire-filled actions!" Kululu played the victim, telling her a complete and utter lie.

Really they could transfer energy through any way, but Mois had made it clear that she didn't know how these things worked and thought kissing was the only way. He could have fun with this.

"W-what...? So from now on we have to kiss?" Mois blushed deeper, "I'm so sorry! This is all my fault!"

Kululu smiled. That was how a human was supposed to act towards a fae! Apologetic and embarrassed by their beauty. He was glad of this.

"I'm sure you'll be reminded of that every time I have to kiss you." Kululu raised his eyebrow, "But don't worry, I'm a nice guy. I will give you what you desire. After all, it's clear that you didn't have to kiss me and just acted on your own desires." Kululu teased.

Mois shook her head, still blushing. "It...It was an honest mistake!" She apologized.

"Oh? So you're saying you're going to be in terrible pain from kissing me? Is something wrong with kissing me? Do you not desire it?" Kululu asked, "Ku, ku, ku. Cuz I'm sorry Mois, if you're not going to like it, this journey is going to be incredibly difficult on you. Because trust me, I will need a lot of power." He grinned.

Mois turned pinker. It was cute. "It's not that I d-don't like it..." She didn't know how to explain it. "Don't worry about me! I just want to help you!" She tried to reassure him.

Kululu put his hand at her chin and tilted it, so he could get a better look at her. She was completely embarrassed. It was wonderful.

And he knew she wanted to kiss him. After all, who wouldn't? He was absolutely beautiful. Probably way better looking than any human man she had encountered. It was nice for her to finally be giving him the attention he deserved.

He loved it. He didn't think he had ever gotten this much kick out of teasing someone about his beauty.

"Oh? So it's not that you won't like it?" He teased, "So it's only so-so? Because I have to admit it's quite a thrill to kiss you, after all I do get to taste your energy itself and get a rush of power." This was a half truth. It was a thrill to kiss her and Kululu was making sure that he got to continue kissing her. Really he just wanted to kiss her. It was really nice, it warmed him in a way that he knew wasn't because of her energy, but because she was an attractive individual.

He wasn't prepared to admit that he was attracted to a human though. She could be a thing, a play thing, but it was kind of humiliating to know that he, a great fae, was more seduced by a human than she was by him.

He had to make sure that wasn't the case.

"N-no...It's not that...I don't know!" Mois threw up her hands in defeat. "We've only kissed once. How am I supposed to decide what to think of it?"

Kululu grinned. "Lucky for you, I am a bit hungry for another meal then~." Kululu's mouth twisted into a wicked smile. His eyes glinted with a sort of evil that Mois hadn't seen before.

No, it wasn't evil that they were glinting with. It was desire. And Mois knew exactly what sort of desire Kululu had.

 _Ah. So this is how fae act..._ Mois realized that she was trapped. She hadn't realized this sort of thing would happen. She tilted her head to the side. It was true that Kululu did need energy though. "...Fine...But just one kiss for now." She agreed.

Kululu nodded, and leaned down kissing her as if he was drinking from her lips, drinking her sweet energy. His hands, rested on the small of her back, pulling her into him, so she wouldn't squirm and he could kiss her lips as much as he wanted.

They were alone in the forest, so it gave them enough time to share one kiss as much as Kululu saw fit. It wasn't the sort of kiss lover's shared, instead it was filled with a sort of raw desire as Kululu did as much as he wanted for 'one' kiss. After all, she hadn't specified if it was a small or long one. And he used his tongue as much as he desired, as if trying to reach her mouth to pull out more sweet energy for himself.

Mois shivered a bit as energy was pulled from her. But Kululu seemed to drink up energy much slower than when she had given him energy. She was much too enthusiastic about giving him tons of her energy, and Kululu was much better with weaving through her energy taking as much as he needed and leaving enough for her to continue with her everyday life. He sensed energy better than she did.

Still, Mois was not suspicious at all that he was just kissing her for the thrill of kissing. When he finally pulled away, he was quite thrilled to see that her eyes were half-lidded and she was quite flushed. Her chest had risen in heavy breathe as she was trying to catch her breathe from such an intense kiss.

Kululu's hands hadn't left her back, inching closer to her rear slower. He was quite a perv after all, and it was clear as day that the human in front of him was quite aroused.

"So...?" He asked, "Was my kissing so-so, or amazing?"

Mois realized he wanted another ego boost. She wasn't sure if all fae were this egotistical or if it was just Kululu. She suspected he might be more egotistical than other fae and this was part of his personality. "Um...It was..." She didn't know what to say. It was pretty good, and it was very clear that she had enjoyed it, but giving him that knowledge would let Kululu use it as a weapon. He had warned her before that fae were tricksters and she was pretty sure he would use this. "...Nice. It was nice. So don't worry about me having a difficult journey with this!" She tried to reassure. He would just get a nice for now.

Kululu seemed irritated. "Oh? Just nice?" He pulled her closer, so she could feel his hot breathe, "You sure you don't want to revise that statement? Ku, ku, ku." He grinned as if waiting for her to throw herself at him, prepared to face whatever raw carnal desires she had.

"Is your hand on my butt?" She realized, perplexed and narrowing her eyes at him, snapping out of the spell of seduction.

"Um...Yes..?" Kululu guessed. "Is that a bad thing?" He tried to play innocent.

She pulled away. So this was the sort of dangers of the fae that she had to be prepared to face. "Yes! That's inappropriate." She scolded, innocently, out of his reach now.

Kululu groaned. "We just made out but you're still worried about what's inappropriate? Do they teach you in human school to be uptight or is it just you?"

"I'm not uptight. I just have boundaries." Mois defended.

Kululu sighed, "Fine. I'll respect them." Boundaries were fun to break anyway. And his hand had been there for full minute before she had any complaints. "Until you say otherwise~."

"What are you imagining...?" Mois was a little worried, "Am I just going to wake up in the middle of the night or something and say, 'Kululu, please touch my butt?'" Mois wondered. "You could say, why would I do that?"

Kululu shrugged. She really didn't have any creative imagination with these things. He'd fix that. "Ku, ku, ku. You'll be a fun little human to tease. That I'm sure of." He grinned.

He could keep himself out of boredom on this journey.

* * *

They walked along the forest, the trees dropping lush pine needles every now and then. Now that Mois had a companion, she was much more chipper and cheerful in the forest. Pretending that she was balancing on a tight-rope as she walked along the path, and pointing to every sight that she found interesting, which was most everything, and showing it to Kululu with innocent excitement.

Kululu tried to keep himself from finding anything she did cute. He was going to kill this girl after all. He could find her alluring, sexy, but cute would make it too hard to kill her. Still, she acted like she had never seen a forest or something.

 _I can have fun with her. Fun will benefit me, but finding anything at all about her personality interesting or intriguing is dangerous. She's just a body to me right now, and she has to remain that way._ Kululu thought to himself. It was really hard to not know about his companions personality though when she flashed it in his face all the time. _Stop worrying, Kululu. You're Kululu. You don't get attached to things. There's no reason to worry._ He relaxed. He was a heartless fae. This human meant nothing to him.

"You never answered what you were doing in the forest." Kululu asked as she walked a few feet ahead of him.

Mois was quiet for a moment. He couldn't see her face, and only could see her back. "M-my name is Mois." She stuttered for a minute as she started, "I come from the human village nearest to the forest. Do you know the one?" She asked.

"Not by name." Kululu shrugged. He had never been there.

Mois's voice started becoming calmer. "I got lost in the forest when I was..." She started playing with her frilly skirt, "Looking for dye." She continued, "I work as a tailor making clothes in the human village."

"Ah, so you made what you're wearing. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu deciphered, looking at her frilly skirt and her short sleeve skirt. It wasn't very good, having patches in parts of it. He could do a lot better and probably find something more fitting for her.

"Y-yeah." Mois replied nervously. "I'm good at sewing." She answered a lot more confidently.

Kululu scoffed. He was probably better. "You'd look nice in something different than that still, I bet. Ohh I can imagine you in a cute little maid outfit! You'd look great in that. Or better yet, ever heard the story of the emperor's new clothes?" He asked, curiously.

"No." Mois clapped, "But I love stories! So please tell me. It always makes me curious when I haven't heard a tale."

"Ku, ku, ku. I'll give you the gist- the emperor has an amazing suit made for him. The description of it...Ku." He was laughing a bit, "Is fabulous. You'd look great in it." He was glad that she hadn't heard the story, "I could probably make you an outfit like that someday."

She had no idea that he was implying that he wanted to see her naked.

"I'd love to model it sometime if you get the materials!" Mois agreed.  
"Ku. I'll definitely take you up on that offer." Kululu agreed. He cleared his throat, trying not to become hoarse from trying not to burst out into laughter at what she had agreed to. "So you became lost in the forest and then what happened?"

"I became seduced by the beautiful fae kingdom, like so many humans." Mois continued.

 _What an idiot. Typical. She wouldn't have lasted a minute without me._ Kululu shrugged. He became worried though as he put his hands in his pockets that she was trying to desperately look for a way out of the forest. "Don't worry. I should remember the way out. I'll lead the way." He picked up his pace to walk by her side.

It was a lie of course. He knew the way out, but he was going to avoid it.

"No!" Mois said quickly. Had she seen through Kululu's ploy? "I mean...I'm sorry..." She smoothed out her skirt. "Even though I'm just a little human who's lost and confused, I don't want to leave the fae kingdom quite yet." She admitted, "As long as I'm here I might get something done. Like a quest, you know?"

Kululu's mouth drew into a sly smile. Even if humans got lost in the world of the fae, many of them changed their mind quickly about leaving hoping to go on a quest for magical powers or some sort of treasure. Most of them were greedy and wanted a thrill of adventure. Mois was the same. And he could use this.

"A quest for what?" Kululu asked, "Ku, ku, ku." This was very ideal.

"The human village has been pillaged by fae for years." Mois admitted, "Fae have come into the human village stealing humans or causing destruction on certain days just for their own amusement. Don't worry, I'm not blaming you!" She said quickly.

Kululu frowned. He liked being blamed.

"Some fae even trick humans into this forest, them obviously getting lost like me and not getting out." Mois continued, "I want this to stop. I want there to be peace. I've heard there's a fae queen and I thought...Maybe if I tried. Like really tried to be honest and just I could negotiate with her." Mois admitted.

Kululu raised an eyebrow. _Oh, this is interesting indeed. She wants to go to the exact person I wanted to bring her? And she has a plan and quest set up. Did she really get lost here, or did she come here on purpose?_ Those questions were questions he knew she wouldn't answer. Kululu smiled broadly. "I've heard that the ruler of the fae lands is called the red queen." He admitted. He stepped in front of her, appearing happy and friendly. Stretching out his hand, he smiled. "I would be more than happy to lead you to her, to find her."

And he was being honest too. Of course he wanted to go for his own reasons. But he tried not to have his usual sinister smirk. He failed of course, but Mois didn't pick up on that.

"Of course, I don't know where her castle is or where she's located, but you'd be better off with me leading you than you. After all, you've already ran into one fae- me." Kululu grinned, "So what do you say? You want me to lead you?"

Mois smiled at him brightly, happy for his offer to help. "Thank you, Kululu! I would be quite happy tor have your help and company!" She shook his hand.

Kululu frowned. Sure, that was what he wanted her to say, but something about the line still made him angry. Maybe it was because of how dumb she was to accept his help, he obviously was up to no good. And if he was going to protect her until they arrived at the red queen, he needed her to be a little smarter so that she wouldn't be accepting every fae's offer to help and be sold to someone other than Kululu.

Kululu glared at her. "Be careful with making deals with fae." He warned, shaking her hand, "They're tricksters. We always take what we want. Always." He moved forward to her, his lips hovering above hers for a moment. "Until we complete our goals I'll protect you." He told her, "But you need to be smarter and more on guard of other fae. " He paused, "And of me." He warned, "I'm a fae too, and you need to remember that. I'm dangerous. For all you know I could try to kill you or trick your life away." He warned in a hiss. His hand went along her back as if in slowly clawing down on it, gently but as if to remind her.

It infuriated him after all how little she saw of him being dangerous. He wanted frightened respect for goodness sake!

"You won't though." Mois said quietly, looking up at him. She was confident in this. "You won't kill or trick me." She said again as if she believed in him.

Kululu knew she was wrong, but he still played along with her foolish hopes. "I know. After all a bond of debt is shared between us. Ku."

Mois smiled brightly. "It's not just a bond of debt!" She reminded him, "Debt doesn't matter to me."

It did to him though. After all, fae had to repay their debts.

"I know, its a soul-bond too.."

"It's a bond of friendship!" She innocently continued, taking her arm as if the small contact was nothing. They had definitely done more, but innocent and pure touches were still too much for him

Her words were innocent, and obviously foolish, but Kululu still thought about them. _Friends with a human? I've never been friends with a human before. In fact I don't think I've ever heard about a human and a fae being friends. Fae steal humans and imprison them. It's a relationship that doesn't start friendships._ Kululu thought to himself. Still the innocent and pure girl in front of him had declared they were friends like it was almost nothing. She probably didn't think of friendship as big of a bond as Kululu did.

She was more innocent and kind than Kululu had ever thought she would be. He could feel a little bit of favor for her, but he quickly pushed that aside. He didn't need to feel intimidated by her affection or anything towards her words.

Still, there was a little something there. A little bit of affection for the foolish human girl.

* * *

They were finally out of the forest and into open field, continuing their walking and traveling. A fae road gave them a trail of where to go.

"Don't listen to the roads. The roads are usually a lie." Kululu advised, "They won't lead you to the castle you search for. Actually I don't even know where it is. Ku, ku, ku. But I know following these roads will bring danger."

"Then what do you suggest?" Mois asked as she started walking on the grass next to the road.

"We're getting closer to the territory of the spring court." Kululu explained. "We can stay there and gather information on where the red queen might be."

Mois nodded. Kululu grabbed at shoulder and pulled her closer to him. The way his arm lay across her frame was almost protective in a way. "Stay near me at all times." He whispered, "Everybody in the spring court will want you. Actually whenever we come across some place with fae, stay near me."

The words were obviously an order, but it sounded like it was in her best interest.

"Why?" She asked. She knew fae were tricksters, and they'd respect another fae over her, but she felt she could probably protect herself. Kululu didn't need to be worried.

"Humans are exotic and interesting. Everybody will want you, either for torture, to try to own you, some like eating humans, and some..." He paused, "Just find it fun to lay with humans. I don't know, might be a kink for them." Kululu shrugged, "Wouldn't want you giving away that delicious energy to some other fae though. So I can't let you go off an be seduced by any of those spring court fae." Mois heard Kululu's voice bristle with dislike. It was clear he didn't really like the spring court.

 _He'd probably say something like it's too sunny for him. Too happy._ Mois decided. She could tell though that Kululu wasn't hiding his words- he didn't want her to be seduced by anyone other than him, he felt she was slightly his catch or something. Overall, he was just being possessive and there was probably no risk of these other fae hurting her.

He just didn't want her sleeping with anyone. She giggled to herself. It was kind of cute that that was Kululu's worry. But why, she wondered?

"What are the fae of the spring court, like?" Mois asked. Maybe there was a reason why Kululu was concerned.

Kululu frowned. "You know how animals usually start mating in spring, right? It's called spring fever?" He asked.

"Yeah...So?" Mois asked.

"It's kind of the same for the spring court. Except constantly. I'll say it directly they're a bunch of horny hippies." Kululu frowned with intense dislike and disgust. Despite he himself being a bit of a pervert, he clearly thought that the spring court was more intense than even him.

Mois didn't know whether to be very confused or laugh. That just sounded weird and amusing. _So Kululu must not be from the spring court._ Mois realized. She had heard every fae came from a specific court and basically had a fae nationality. And despite Kululu thinking she was dumb and foolish ever since freeing him she had tried to figure out what his personality was like and more about him, to type him basically. To examine him. And right now she was guessing as to which court he belonged to. _There's five courts -not including the red queen's castle who rules the fae world. Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, and Night. Kululu doesn't seem the bright and chipper type that spring and summer might have, so maybe he's from the fall court?_ She didn't know what the fall court was like, but she was just guessing that they were grumpy and bitter. Like Kululu.

"I won't let anyone else have your delicious energy. It's all for me." Kululu promised her.

Mois smiled. _That's cute._ She thought. She started peering towards the horizon and noticed something in the distance.

She hurried her step and approached the building just sitting out there in the middle of nowhere. It looked like it was two stories and it was large and wooden and beautifully painted with bright colors.

Really, it looked more like a human building than a fae building.

"That's...odd.." Kululu realized. "Stay away from that," He advised Mois, "Odd things are usually tricks. That place could be dangerous."

In large words a sign read ' _Inn. All welcome.'_ Mois had come across an inn in the fae lands, and a welcoming looking one.

"It looks very human." Mois realized.

"I know. Maybe a hungry fae made it to lure lost humans here. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu suggested. "Either way, I don't trust it. Let's go." He instructed.

But Mois walked up the steps of the inn. It looked welcoming, but not in the magical way the field of flowers had been that put her to sleep. "It would be nice to stay the night or check it out." Before Kululu could pull her away, Mois knocked on the door and opened it, walking in.

Kululu frowned. _She's way too rambunctious!_ That was obviously a stupid and dangerous thing to do. _Protecting this little human is going to be way harder than I thought when she just wanders off._

He went in after her, to stop whatever danger she had gotten herself into.

* * *

 **Please review. Extra characters are finally coming in next chapter, although likely it will be the only chapter they appear in.**

 **Hope you are enjoying the story!**


	3. Welcome All

**I hope you enjoy. Sorry again that the story was getting a bit sexy and had to become M.**

* * *

 _Ring-Ring._

The bell on the door rung, as Mois opened it, walking inside the inn. It had a sort of homely smell, of burning incense. It was calm.

Kululu walked in behind her, his arms stiff and ready to attack if he saw something that seemed too dangerous. He had enough power from Mois's kiss previously that his finger tips were glittering with magic, dark energy, his nails turning deep black instead of their usual pale.

"Welcome!" A chipper voice smiled. Mois glanced to the person behind the desk. She knew no humans were supposed to be in the kingdom of the fae, but chipperness wasn't something that fae books seemed to say fae acted like.

A young woman jumped over the counter gracefully. She wore a tiny little black dress, her skirt much too short and a weird sort of fishnet underneath her dress. She had long green hair in a red ribbon and dark green eyes. Her skin wasn't as perfect as Kululu's and faults- bruises from training and things like that were all over her hands and thighs.

Her skin, her face, her body were obviously human. But her ears were quite different, long and stretching out of her hair, perhaps three inches in size and pointed.

"An elf." Kululu said with interest. He relaxed. Elves weren't known for trickery and were actually quite friendly towards humans. They roamed the fae and human lands happily, residing and coming from the fae lands but not exactly following their rules. They were free spirited adventures, not bound to the laws of magic and debt. "Ku, ku, ku."

"Isn't it rude to state someone's race by just looking at them?" The elf innkeeper asked.

"It is...?" Mois asked.

The elf laughed loudly. "I don't know." She shrugged, "I was just playing with you." But she nodded, "I am an elf. It's rare to see a human wander so far into the fae lands." She leaned close to Mois with interest, sniffing her.

It was way too close for either Mois's or Kululu's liking.

"You smell like him." The elf scrunched up her nose and then covered her face. "Ohhh...Umm...I didn't know there were any fae/human couples."

Kululu glanced at Mois. The elf seemed harmless enough and it would probably benefit them to stay at the inn. Maybe they could gather some information on to where the castle of the spring court was.

"I've never seen an elf." Mois admitted, "They're...Not tricksters, right?" She glanced at Kululu for information.

"Elves are non-immortal creatures, unlike fae." Kululu explained, "They live to the age of one thousand, but no longer. And they require food and sleep just like humans." Kululu drawled, not very interested in elves. They were boring. "However they're perfectly friendly. They care more about adventure than tricking poor lost humans."

"So I assume you wanted to stay at my inn?" The elf asked, brushing her hair out of her face. The couple had started ignoring her as soon as she mentioned their unusual status as a fae/human couple. "I would happy to let you stay here. My inn is welcoming to all, fae from every court and adventuring humans!" She proclaimed, "Name's Koyuki Azumaya." She stretched out her hand, smiling at Mois.

It was certainly odd to see someone friendly towards her, but Mois was happy enough for the welcomed change, taking the elves hand and shaking it. "My name's Mois." She greeted.

Kululu frowned. Name's had power and he didn't want to give out his. He had given his to Mois in a moment of weakness, desperate to have some companionship in his imprisonment, but he wasn't going to give it to this elf stranger.

Koyuki glanced at Kululu, waiting for his name.

"Do you have a shirt? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu asked instead. He didn't want to give his name, but he did want to hide Mois's name plastered to his chest.

Koyuki smiled, not as attracted to Kululu as any weak willed human would be. "I probably do. But I still have to ask, will you be staying the night?"

"I would like to." Mois nodded.

Kululu nodded. He knew that if something happened he'd have to kill this elf, and for that he'd need power. It was best to get the kisses he needed now, rather than later. "My wife and I are on our honey-moon." He lied, pretending to be a sweet couple to con Koyuki.

He pulled Mois closer to him, kissing the back of her neck, slowly. He felt Mois bristle, getting goose-bumps. She tried to keep quiet, instead of pausing to ask Kululu why he was doing this.

"We were wondering if we could stay here before continuing on with our journey. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu continued, nibbling, up the side of Mois's neck, a part of the human he hadn't yet had the opportunity to explore, until he reached Mois's ear, licking it with tender caresses.

He could get power from this sort of contact too. But likely Mois didn't know that. Actually he wasn't pulling out any of her energy, he was just kissing her for the lie and because he liked seeing her embarrassed.

"K-kululu..." Mois tried to whisper. She knew he was lying to Koyuki and playing pretend, probably trying to appeal to her sense of love to let them stay there for free, but it was still embarrassing to be handled this way in front of a stranger.

Kululu grazed his teeth against Mois's ear, giving it sweet tender kisses as Mois just got redder and redder as Kululu's hand roamed up Mois's thigh, slowly and tenderly as if to massage her. Mois tried to awkwardly turn around to face Kululu so she could whisper to him to do a bit less because this was embarrassing her, but Kululu wasn't really giving her the chance to contour herself towards him.

Koyuki began to feel very awkward. She had known they were a couple, but it was still awkward to see this. Still she had seen many a time couples get frisky in her reception area. Apparently they couldn't wait to get to their rooms.

She sighed. "So I assume you'll want one bed?" She asked, trying to book their room for them.

"Um...I'm fine with two-" Mois tried to squeak out.

"Yes please! Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed. He enjoyed making both Mois and Koyuki uncomfortable at the same time. It was a win-win for him. He felt Mois squirm against him, knowing that she couldn't say out right that they weren't married or else she would put Kululu's honest virtues into questions and that she had to play along.

 _Bet you already regret running into someone._ Kululu grinned, thinking to himself as he continued his impure onslaught of kisses on Mois's ear.

"So...You have any money?" Koyuki asked, "I'll take fae currency or human currency." She nodded to them.

Kululu and Mois paused their routine, pulling away from each other and how entwined they were to look at Koyuki awkwardly.

Kululu had been imprisoned for five hundred years. He had a reason to have no money. He glanced at Mois, hoping she would have something.

"You could say, flat out broke?" Mois smiled, shrugging. She didn't have anything at all. Kululu frowned at her. She was probably a poor tailor.

Koyuki frowned at them. "That's a shame..."

"You don't think you could make an exception? Ku, ku, ku. For a couple utterly in love?" He hated using the term, it was sickening sweet, but hopefully the dumb elf would be conned.

"I can't. Rules are rules." Koyuki shrugged.

Mois sighed.

"But..." Koyuki looked at both of them with pity. She did want to let them stay, "I do love stories, I collect folktales and things." She admitted, "And it's rare to get a human customer, so if you're able to tell me a story that I haven't heard before, I'll let you stay for one night." Those were her terms.

Kululu smiled. This was something Mois could actually do. After all, to his knowledge she had read way too many stories.

"Um..Let's see, have you heard the main fairy tales...Snow white? Sleeping Beauty?" Mois asked.

Koyuki nodded.

Mois continued listening off stories that she heard. It took an hour to get through the list, but Koyuki had heard them all.

"You've got nothing new?" Koyuki asked, bored. She was an adventurer, so she had heard most of them.

Mois frowned and rubbed her arm. She didn't really have anything unusual. Just the usual.

Kululu walked away from Mois and leaned behind Koyuki on her counter. "You can do it. Make something up if you don't have anything else." He mouthed to her, hoping she could lip read.

"Um...All right. This story is about a girl named Alice, who becomes lost in an unusual world." Mois started.

Koyuki listened with somewhat interest, likely she had heard this one too.

"Alice was a girl of simple traits, she had blonde hair and a naive little smile. She loved her simple little life in her simple village." Mois started.

Kululu noticed how bored Koyuki looked. _Darn this won't work. Mois's story is boring. I have to send her signs to start adding things._

"One day she saw a white rabbit when she was picking flowers in a field. Enchanted by the beautiful white fur coat, Alice followed the creature..."

Kululu tried to make signals to her. _'Make Alice eat the rabbit!'_ He worded.

Turns out Mois couldn't read lips all that well it turned out. She tried to guess at what Kululu was suggesting. "She found a hole, a rabbit hole, she stuck her head into the hole and the hole seemed to devour her body, until she came into a world where everybody was furries!"

Koyuki's eyes widened. She definitely hadn't heard this one before.

"Furries?" Koyuki asked with confusion.

"You know, people that are part animal, part human. And the rabbit that she had followed was suddenly a handsome human!" She glanced at Kululu for instruction.

He was avoiding her eye contact. She was butchering this story! This wasn't a folk tale.

 _'Get the rabbit to kill the human girl.'_ He shrugged.

"And so the white rabbit lured Alice to his bedroom where venus fly traps were everywhere, and they started watering plants together. It turns out the rabbit had a curse where he had to always water plants on time or else they would eat his family!" Mois started getting more into the story, being more expressive.

And to Kululu's shock, Koyuki was listening intensely.

"Did Alice and the rabbit become friends?" Koyuki asked.

" _Yes. Give her what she wants."_ Kululu shrugged.

"Well, sort of." Mois continued. "Alice agreed to help the white rabbit from his curse, but she slowly started falling in love with him. But it turns out the white rabbit was engaged to someone named the mad hatter! Alice became jealous of the mad hatter with his fancy cups of tea and started planning his murder!"

Kululu's jaw just fell open. She had added a love triangle to her story? He turned away in shame. He didn't want to see how this story ended.

Mois tried to see what Kululu was looking at, telling her what to add. What Kululu didn't see was a bunch of knives, but Mois decided to add that to the story.

"Alice tried to murder the mad hatter with several knives, but the mad hatter avoided all of them. She gave him one stab wound though. Slowly he picked up one of Alice's knives and told her that the woman who had stabbed him he had to swear loyalty to and love. So he abandoned the white rabbit for Alice! Now Alice couldn't decide between either her loves, the white rabbit or the mad hatter." Mois shrugged.

Koyuki was getting way too excited. "So what did she do? Marry them both?"

Kululu started bashing his head against the wall. This was the worst story he had ever heard.

"Well, she did bang both of them. At the same time." Mois glanced at Kululu.

Kululu made a signal with his throat to end the story. However it was also the signal of decapitation.

"But the white rabbit was jealous. So he decapitated the mad hatter. And then the queen of hearts came in and destroyed the world of wonderland with her magical croquet rod. And everyone died!" Mois told her.

Koyuki was crying. What a beautiful story. She clapped. "Humans have such interesting legends!" She didn't know it was made up. "You can stay the night." She agreed.

"Thank god. I didn't know how much more of that I had to listen to!" Kululu rubbed his temple, annoyed. "Let's go, before she tells us to tell another story." He grabbed Mois's hand to pull her up the stairs.

Koyuki smiled at them. "So, have many people been in support of your union? Or did you two elope?"

"Huh?" Mois asked. She had forgotten that Koyuki still thought her and Kululu were married.

"We eloped. The family's not too supportive of me running off with a human." Kululu lied, hoping to get away from Koyuki.

"I can understand that. Some people aren't too supportive of this sort of thing." She nodded, "But I am in complete support of you cross-breeding up there!"

Kululu rolled his eyes. He didn't really want to listen to Koyuki any longer. He pulled at Mois's hand to try to get her up the stairs.

"Why?" Mois asked, a question that Kululu hadn't thought to ask. "Why are you in support of it?"

Kululu hadn't cared to know.

"My partner is a fae too." Koyuki smiled. "Some people think it's weird, a fae and an elf together. I'm just glad it's not only us who have an out-of-species union."

Kululu paused at that knowledge, turning pale. So there was a fae around here! An elf was no problem to Mois, but a fae was. And he didn't know how strong this other fae was. He knew he was probably stronger, but with his handicap of only using his power if he had energy from Mois...

It was best to leave there. Kululu decided. _Either the fae will try to steal Mois away from me, or warn her about me._ Either way he didn't want to deal with him. But leaving right now would make Koyuki suspicious.

They'd leave in the middle of the night. Kululu decided. Before her partner returned.

"I'll bring a shirt up to you around dinner time." Koyuki offered, "Don't worry! I serve some of the best food around and its not fae food, so a human like you can eat it! Just...Be decent when I knock on the door, please?" Koyuki begged.

What did she think they were going to do? Start screwing each other as soon as the doors closed? Oh wait, Kululu had probably given her that impression. He laughed to himself. "I'll try to remind Mois to put her clothes back on by dinner time." Kululu said dryly. After all, he kind of expected Mois to jump him as soon as they closed the door.

He'd be very impressed with her will power if she didn't. And also slightly disappointed.

* * *

The food had been a lie. It was literally the worst thing Kululu or Mois had ever seen, with lizard legs sticking out of what was supposed to be some sort of bread.

"At least you have a shirt now." Mois tried to reassure him.

The shirt was dark purple, Kululu would have honestly preferred yellow, but he couldn't be picky about this. It had long sleeves and buttons so he could button it up to hide the new tattoo that his soul bond had formed.

"You must be so disappointed." Kululu teased, "Ku, ku, ku. Now you can't check out my beautiful body at every moment."

Mois rolled her eyes. "I'm actually happy that you finally have a shirt." She corrected. She paused for a moment, actually eating the disgusting food that was in front of her. "The elf who runs this place, Koyuki...She seems nice."

"It's her fae partner that worries me." Kululu admitted, "Who knows when he'll be back? And I'd rather not run into another fae until necessary." His voice was cold, as if for some reason other fae bothered him more than he had let on.

"But I thought you wanted to gather information as to where the red queen's castle was!" Mois reminded him. "Wouldn't another fae maybe have that information?" She raised her eyebrow trying to suggest something. She hoped her partner would listen to her- actually value her suggestions.

Kululu didn't listen to her. "We'll leave in the middle of the night." His words were firm.

Mois frowned. _I would have preferred if he gave me a say in the matter too. After all we're traveling together._ Although she was just a human and he was a powerful fae, she still liked to see them as equals, despite them being nowhere near that status. She didn't think that the fae would hurt them. After all his business partner was supportive of humans staying at the inn. But Kululu was naturally suspicious of people.

"But..." The other fae might be friendly and a very good source of information. She hoped, and almost begged in her mind for Kululu to listen to her, to value her opinion.

"We're leaving." Kululu said again, "Now if you want to get some sleep before then, be my guest. I know humans require more sleep than fae."

"I like sleep." Mois admitted. She didn't know if she actually required as much sleep as she was doing on this trip. She just liked it.

Kululu shrugged. "Just give me a few energy boosts before you sleep." He requested, sitting on the bed and gesturing for her to get onto his lap.

Still irritated at him for not listening to her, she did not do as he gestured and instead sat next to him on the bed. She pulled Kululu's mouth close to hers and give him a few quick pecks on the lips, innocent in nature.

"Nothing longer?" Kululu asked with minor disappointment. He would have expected with all the teasing he did to her in the lobby that she would have jumped him. She still hadn't expressed any arousal after his teasing, only mentioning it with slight annoyance and to give her warning next time he was going to try a routine like that. This human had way more will power than he gave her credit for. "Ku, ku, ku."

"I do want to get _some_ sleep." Mois smiled, "Kissing takes up time."

Kululu looked irritated that she cared more about sleep than kissing him. That wasn't how being as sexy as him was supposed to work!

Why was she constantly immune to his charms? This was annoying.

She tucked herself into bed, and fell asleep. Ignoring him and not giving Kululu the attention that he wouldn't admit to actually wanting for himself.

* * *

It was sort of calming to have Mois leaning against his chest, sleeping calmly, taking short breaths and snuggling into him. He didn't really mind being a pillow, since it gave him some energy, enough that he could tinker with parts that he had found in their inn room, inventing things again, something he had very much missed, but it was a weird sensation to actually be sleeping with someone. Have someone asleep on top of him.

It was midnight. Time for both of them to sneak out of the inn. Kululu shook his companion awake.

"Time to go." He told her.

Mois rubbed her eyes, tired. "Do we have to?" She asked.

Kululu nodded.

Mois slinked out of bed, lazily. She didn't really want to sneak out.

Seeing that she was being slow about getting out of bed, he picked her up in his arms. It would be faster to just carry her.

Mois woke up, as Kululu pulled her up into his arms, the sensation was kind of romantic. She had seen many pictures of prince charming's carrying their princesses off in bridal style. So being carried like that woke her up immediately.

"Can I drop you now?" Kululu asked, seeing her eyes wide awake as she put her arms around his neck to keep from dropping. "Ku, ku, ku. I would very much like to."

"Please don't." Mois begged. "I like this..."

He dropped her, anyway. She had to learn a hard lesson about this world.. "No free rides. Now that you're awake, we can hurry up and leave."

Mois rubbed her butt, it hurting from the hard floor, but nodded. She stood up and followed Kululu out of the inn room.

It was too bad that Kululu was too suspicious to let them stay a full night. Being in an inn was sort of homely. _Oh well, I don't suppose I can change Kululu's personality. And I was the one who chose to help him, to offer him to travel with me. I'm just seeing more of how he's as big of a jerk as he claims because of how he treats other people._ Mois realized. And maybe she was the one who was foolish. Kululu had more real world experience than her, perhaps he was right to leave before they ran into the other fae.

She followed Kululu down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. But as Kululu reached the front door, trying to turn the knob, a dagger was thrown at his head. The dagger only materialized seconds before it would have hit him, but thanks to Kululu's energy boost from Mois he was able to move his head as it just missed his ear.

"It's always suspicious when a customer tries to sneak out in the middle of the night." The voice didn't belong to the elf that they had met earlier today. And Mois and Kululu both turned to face a fae.

Just like Kululu, his body was lean, sculpted perfectly with no imperfections. He wore garments that looked like they were made of the finest silk the color of sky blue. His eyes also were shimmering with the same sky blue, the soft friendliness gone at his suspicion against Kululu.

His hair was bright pink, long and in a pony-tail just like Koyuki's. He wore a mask on his face as if to hide his mouth. Something was unsettling about not being able to see how someone's mouth was formed, to not be able to read their smiles or frowns. It was as if they themselves were so suspicious that they had to hide themselves.

He was a fae, his body glittering with a sort of magic.

"Is it a crime to leave?" Kululu bristled. He hadn't wanted to run into another fae. He didn't trust them.

"No." The fae frowned, "I'm just interested in why you're leaving. I've heard from Koyuki who you are, a mysterious couple on their honeymoon, very affectionate but an odd human/fae match up." The fae had an air of suspicion about him.

He threw another dagger, this time at Mois.

Mois ducked down quickly, it barely missing her.

Kululu had made no efforts to stop the dagger, despite his promise to protect Mois. He was too busy watching the other fae. Mois didn't blame him for not helping though, it wasn't like he could have done much. _He could have tried to help me, but we both know it wouldn't have helped much. And Kululu's much too smart to do useless actions._ Still he hadn't looked worried at all when the dagger had flown at Mois and hadn't even twitched to help her.

 _He smells familiar. And looks familiar. His daggers are a type of magic that is strong...Who is he?_ Kululu wondered instead.

"Just as I suspected, you hold no affection for that human." The fae frowned, "If she was your wife you would have panicked and protected her, but instead you let her deal with my dagger herself."

Kululu glanced at Mois. He hadn't thought the dagger would kill her, but knew she might have been injured. He hadn't ever observed how Mois's reflexes were, so there was always a risk of injury. But he didn't much care. Injury might hurt her, but it would still make her intact to be useful to him.

Mois didn't look that mad at Kululu. Kululu couldn't be prepared to fight all her battles for her after all. "Let's go." She agreed with Kululu, finally seeing that he was right about leaving so early.

Kululu frowned, finally identifying what the fae in front of him was. The sickening air of the spring court was in the air, he could smell it. "You're from the spring court." He deciphered. He frowned deeper realizing more of what the fae was. He seemed to have a higher status to him than just a wandering inn keeping hippie. "And not just that, you're a noble of the spring court!"

All fae had smells. He didn't think a human could decipher them, but if one got to know the fae well enough, like that elf Koyuki had done, they would be able to distinguish different fae slowly by smell. That was how Koyuki had smelled that Mois had the scent of Kululu on her.

It was interesting to note though, that even though fae noses were perfect, Kululu couldn't distinguish between various human scents. Mois herself for example had no scent at all. He didn't know if this was unusual or anything, since he didn't care enough about humans to have ever noticed about their scent.

This was bad though that the fae was a noble. High lords were the most powerful of the fae race, with nobles just below them. "He's one of the dangers from the spring court, Mois. Nobles are strong, dangerous."

Mois looked worried. "You're a noble?" She asked, concerned.

"My mother was the high lord of the spring court." The fae nodded, "Your intelligent, to get that all from my scent. I admit it's hard to mask my scent to other fae's." He paused for a moment, "But just as you identified me, I identified you to. I identified your putrid scent as soon as I returned to the inn and I've been waiting for you."

Kululu turned pale. Mois glanced up at him. She had never seen Kululu shake this much before. Like he was nervous, or scared. Kululu grabbed at Mois's hand and pulled it towards the door knob, like he wanted to leave before the fae could continue talking. That was impossible though. He wasn't talking that slowly.

Even when he had been imprisoned, he had never looked scared.

"Your human compatriot isn't what worries me. No, it's you." The fae admitted, "And I won't let you hurt Koyuki. I won't put our lives at risk for whatever sick and twisted scheme you have, _demon_." The fae hissed the name, the accusation of what Kululu was.

Vine like things appeared in the floor, dark vines, dripping with a sort of blood. At first Mois believed it was the other fae's magic, but she realized it was Kululu. She looked at him and saw that he was glaring, his eyes shimmering almost red. His body was now shivering in rage, no longer fear.

"You win the prize! You realized I'm part demon. And what is it that you win?" Kululu grinned as his black vines entwined the fae, "Death." He made a fist with his hand.

"Kululu..." Mois looked at him. He was a demon.

"Even if it's only 1/4th demon, I'm still much more powerful than a normal fae. You don't stand a chance against me." Kululu's voice was quiet. He knew Mois was still there, but he still continued talking.

The fae tried to squirm as the magic crushed his leg bones. He screamed out in pain. "AUGGHHH!"

Kululu was trying to do this quickly, for fear that his magic would run out. He didn't want the fae to know that he had a cap on his magical power.

The fae took out a magical blade, glowing with light energy. He cut at the vines and jumped out with expertise.

"I am skilled in the ways of battle. You won't kill me that easily, demon." The fae hissed. "I want you to know my name, so it can be the last thing on your evil lips- Dororo. Remember it well."

Even if names had power, the fae obviously wanted to speak his name a lot.

Mois looked worried as Kululu and Dororo seemed to face each other in battle.

"S-stop! Don't hurt each other!" Mois begged. She didn't know much about this other fae, but she didn't want them to kill each other.

Kululu ignored Mois's pleas. She didn't know enough about this world to know that killing was inevitable. Dororo looked at the human with sadness.

"I promise not to hurt you." Dororo promised, "After I kill your companion, I would like to ask you a few things though..." He paused.

Mois frowned. He probably wanted to know how she had gotten herself in the company of Kululu, she tried to lean closer to Kululu, almost worried for both their safety.

"You have quite the unusual hair color for a human, after all." Dororo continued glancing at Mois.

Mois paused for a moment. "But my hair is blonde!" She reminded him, "There's lots of humans with blonde hair."

Dororo looked at her puzzled. "It's not..." He clutched his head as if he was getting a headache, "I'm sorry, it looked a bit different illuminated in the moonlight. So it is blonde." He apologized. "I'm sorry for having to kill your companion then. But his blood is poison, toxic evil, filled with power and a blood lust that isn't needed in this world."

Kululu had paused for a moment to hear the conversation between Mois and Dororo, but continued charging everything he touched turning to a sort of tar and burning away, if he wished. "Legends says fae were descended from demons, you know." Kululu shrugged, "So it's not that bad to have more demon blood in me than others. Ku, ku, ku. I bet you're just jealous that I'm more powerful than you." Kululu tried to plunge his hand at Dororo's chest as if to burn him.

But Dororo dodged.

"Demons are evil. People with more blood than necessary are toxic. People like you. You're not like the rest of us." Dororo accused, "Look at you! You even have those silly things on your face, you lost the perfect eyesight that normal fae are supposed to have."

Kululu growled, obviously sensitive about that subject. Mois could see him biting his lip for a moment, glaring at Dororo with utter hatred. He tried yet again to kill Dororo.

 _That makes sense..._ Mois realized. _So in return for more power, Kululu also has some imperfections, like bad eyesight._ She had wondered why a fae needed glasses. Kululu obviously didn't like talking about his eyesight too. She remembered how when she had first met Kululu he hadn't mentioned that he couldn't see her, as if to hide it. He hadn't asked her to pick up his glasses that had fallen off his face, as if ashamed by that fact.

She wondered if the real reason Kululu didn't want her near other fae was because they would out him as part demon, after seeing just one fae after all he had attacked them. _I shouldn't have tried to stay longer. I should have listened to him. He was right._ Mois realized that Kululu might not have warned her about fae for her sake, but for his. After all, it could be assumed that the fae had imprisoned him before. And they clearly hated things with higher demon blood. _Poor Kululu! I wonder if he's scared of what I think of him now..._ She smiled to herself. He probably wasn't. He probably believed she was too foolish to even know what demons were.

She actually was familiar with the legends of demons. She just didn't care if Kululu was 1/4th demon. His actions and personality were far more important to her than his blood or what race he was. And although both were rather wicked, she still cared for Kululu. He was something she felt like she wanted to protect. Her first companion in the world of the fae.

Kululu and Dororo jumped around the room, faster than Mois could keep track of. Kululu hid behind the counter for a moment as he tried to grab some parts, make something with his massive intelligence like an invention.

His hands froze up just as he was about to put in the last few parts. _Damn! The power I borrowed from Mois must have run out!_ He could only invent if he had her energy. And now he couldn't do any attacks at all.

Dororo's sword glowed as he jumped on top of the counter. "Found you. I hope your death will be quick." He plunged the sword down at Kululu.

"Don't!" Mois pushed Dororo to the side, hurrying over to where Dororo had finally materialized.

Dororo was startled that a human had even dared to push a fae. That definitely took courage. He raised his hand up and Mois hovered above the ground, as he levitate her with his own magic and force.

Kululu hurried out of his hiding place. "Mois!" He knew he needed her at the moment. He couldn't have Dororo throwing her around.

"I won't kill her. But it would be best for her to go to sleep right now." Dororo promised him. His telekinetic grip crawled along Mois's body until it was finally at her neck. He only wanted to choke her enough to put her unconscious.

Kululu threw a shoe on the ground at Dororo's face. It was a pathetic throw. Now that he wasn't as strong as his fae power demanded, it wouldn't do as much damage. But still it managed to distract Dororo into dropping Mois. The shoe hit Dororo in the cheek.

Mois coughed, desperately and Kululu caught her, letting her lightly fall into his arms.

"You okay?" He asked her, pressing his fingers to her neck lightly. He didn't want to show concern, that would make her feel like he cared about her, but he also knew that at the moment she was his partner and companion. And seeing her choked like that hadn't been something he had liked for once. He couldn't heal, but he did want to subdue the pain. He hoped the contact of his skin would divert her attention from the pain.

Slowly Kululu's neck started burning as if he couldn't breathe. And then the pain vanished. With drops of energy he had stolen the pain away from Mois. _Ku. I guess the soul-bond sort of thing is a two way track._

"Y-yeah..." She rubbed her neck, feeling better. "You need me right now, right?" She asked him, looking up at him.

He nodded, grinning, "May I?"

Mois nodded, and much to Dororo's intense shock, Kululu leaned down and began kissing her.

"Um...We're fighting." Dororo tried to remind Kululu. They were in the middle of a fight and Kululu had taken the opportunity to kiss Mois?

Mois put her arms on the back of Kululu's neck and pulled him closer, at the moment she wanted the pain and worry of the fight with Dororo to go away, and for that to happen she needed to give Kululu as much power as necessary. She kissed him hungrily as all the worry, pain and anything else faded out of both their minds. Their kissing was getting more desperate and intense and it honestly concerned Dororo.

"D-did...Did you forget about me?" Dororo tried to get their attention.

Clearly they sort of had forgotten him. Because although they had at first kissed to give Kululu more power, they were now hungrily kissing each other, entwining their bodies in a way that made it clear they were just desperate for maximum skin contact.

And it really made Dororo uncomfortable. This display of affection was too public! He started blushing. Maybe he had gotten it wrong that they were married...

"I'm..I'm right here." He tried to remind. He couldn't strike Kululu when he wasn't looking, that would risk hurting Mois.

Kululu's hands started trailing down Mois's shirt, towards the buttons.

He dropped his sword. "Fine! I give up! Just stop! Please. I don't want you to start screwing in front of me!" He begged, dropping to his knees and begging.

Kululu pulled away and smiled. Disgusting Dororo hadn't been his plan, but it was nice to know that he could use this kissing thing for an extra benefit. "I thought you'd be used to this sort of stuff." He scoffed, "After all, aren't you a horny simpleton from the spring court? Don't you and your elf shack up all the time? Ku, ku, ku."

Dororo frowned. He hated that stereotype that people from the spring court only cared about sex- Although it was slightly true, Dororo was actually the type to do that behind closed doors instead of in public. This was too much. "Don't insult Koyuki like that. And don't call me a horny simpleton." Dororo no longer wished to give up, he got ready to charge at Kululu again, but now that Kululu was all powered up, Kululu easily froze him, tangling him up in all sorts of spider-like webs filled with magic.

Kululu picked up Dororo's sword on the ground. "I'll enjoy killing a noble of the spring court." Kululu moved forward to slice Dororo's neck.

Mois pulled at his arm. "Stop!" She got in between them, stretching her arms out to shield Dororo.

"What? Kindness and sparing his life won't benefit anyone. He would have killed me happily. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu reminded her, "Get out of the way. If you can't stomach this sort of stuff, wait outside."

Mois frowned at him. "Don't kill him!" She begged. Kululu rolled his eyes feeling her actions were fueled by her foolish kindness, "He could be a usable information source." Instead though her reasoning was strategic, and actually useful.

Kululu paused for a moment. _So...She does have a brain. Geez, darn it! I should have thought about that, getting information out of him._ He glanced at Mois. Yet again she was displaying that she was smarter than he first thought.

He dropped the sword. "Fine."

Mois smiled and nodded. "Thank you. After all, we did want information." She politely told Kululu. "Now...Dororo, was it?" She asked. "Fae rules compel you to answer me. I saved your life and in return for that favor, I would like information. How do we survive in the spring court? Are there any tricks? Anything we should know about?" Mois asked.

Dororo nodded. She was smarter than he had thought. She was using the rules of favors to her advantage.

Kululu looked at Mois suspiciously. He couldn't deny that he was impressed though. _She's more than just a pretty face. I entirely misjudged this little human that roamed into my lair. She must have researched fae rules before coming here._ He realized when he offered her the orange that she must have known he was trying to trick her then too. She had just played pretend that she didn't know.

He had to admit. Mois was slightly cool. There was definitely more there than he had first thought. She interested him.

Dororo looked apologetic. "There's no way to survive the spring court." He admitted, "After all, it no longer exists."

"What?" Kululu spat the words. He had been gone from society for a few hundred years so he was a bit out of touch with what the fae kingdoms were up to. But there was no way an entire court could be wiped away from the face of the kingdom.

"The mad queen..." Dororo was silent.

Mois's eyes became sad at this confession, and she looked down.

"Mad queen..." Kululu tried to remember the words. Ah, that must have been Dororo's saying for the red queen. He had heard rumors but had never seen anything bad she had done first hand. "Ah, you mean the red queen!"

Dororo nodded. "She destroyed it, sending her powers and soldiers. She wiped everything off of the face of the earth. I escaped though and am the last surviving spring fairy." Dororo admitted. "If you have business with the spring court, you have business with me."

"We don't." Kululu frowned. He had wanted information on where the red queen was, but Dororo clearly didn't know. After all if he did he would have gone for revenge. Still, it was a bit shaking that an entire court was gone. "Are...Are all the other kingdoms intact?" He asked.

"After the spring court, she organized the destruction of the fall court." Dororo admitted. Mois could hear that his voice was shaking.

She glanced at Kululu curiously. _I believed he came from the fall court. Is he concerned about what happened to them?_ Kululu didn't look like he cared. So clearly he wasn't from the fall court either.

"You sound like you feel guilty for what happened to them." Mois told him. Kululu hadn't sensed Dororo's guilt.

"After I escaped the destruction of the spring court, I found sanction in the night court. They were aligned with the red queen and I became an assassin under them. I...I helped destroy the fall court. Although I didn't order it, their blood is on my hands." Dororo admitted. Tears were coming down his face. He wasn't strong, he was running from his past with this inn.

Koyuki stepped down the stairs, having heard a commotion. "Dororo! Are you all right?" She asked, rushing up to him.

"Get back. We're questioning him." Kululu threatened and hissed.

"It's all right." Dororo instructed. "Stay safe." He told the concerned looking Koyuki.

"Did you hurt him?" Koyuki hissed, looking accusingly at Kululu and Mois.

"We're asking him questions." Mois told her honestly. "We've learned about his past."

"Stop digging those things up! He hates remembering!" Koyuki begged.

Kululu was about to tell her a sly remark like he'd kill her at any moment and Dororo too if they didn't keep talking, but it was Mois who answered her.

"I'm sorry. We need more information." She was the one who wanted to continue to prod. "My friend and I are going on a quest, and for that we might have to go through all the courts. So tell me Dororo, which are left and what dangers might we face in them?" Mois asked a direct question. She knew Dororo would probably value the honesty in her statement, the knowledge that she had no business with him, it was something larger her and Kululu were after.

Dororo nodded, ready to give her information. "There are three courts left. The summer court, the winter court and the night court. Of those three the summer court is probably the least dangerous- they value honor strongly and are bound by it. But the night court..." He shivered, "Is hell itself. You would be best to avoid that place. The winter court also holds danger for you, since they've been known to steal humans from the human world and imprison them."

Kululu's eyes lit up. The winter court would be where they went next then. He still needed a way for Mois to never be compelled to leave the land of the fae.

"Do you know where the red queen is?" Kululu asked. It was a useless question since he doubted Dororo knew anything.

"No." Dororo shook his head. Seeing that he wasn't lying, Kululu turned around.

"Let's go." He told Mois. "We've got some useful information." He glanced at Dororo, "You'll be free in a few hours. But for now you'll stay that way."

Koyuki looked worriedly at her partner.

Mois turned away and followed Kululu out the door they had places to be and a journey to continue.

* * *

She didn't say anything about Kululu's demon heritage. It seemed to be a useless topic to talk about, and a touchy subject to him.

"Where will be heading now? The spring court is gone." Mois reminded Kululu.

"The winter court." Kululu suggested, "It's the closest to here, and would be the next place to get information."

Mois nodded. Although she had heard Dororo's warning about the place, she trusted Kululu's judgment.

 _Hopefully they can trick her into staying. She won't be able to leave to the human world after she's forced to stay here._ Kululu smiled to himself.

He would hate for Mois to leave. Not just because he needed her, but because she was interesting. Begrudgingly, Kululu was realizing he liked the company that Mois was giving him and that he liked having her around. That and he really enjoyed kissing her.

 _Stop that. She's not interesting. She's going to die to cure you. The red queen will be so pleased with you she'll use her power to stop your curse. That's what you want isn't it?_ Kululu reminded himself. This interest- it was just a phase, a passing thought.

He'd be able to kill her anyway. He would kill her despite his growing respect and admiration and interest in her.

He had to.

* * *

 **Please review!**

 **New characters in this chapter.**

 **Koyuki- Elf**

 **Dororo- Noble of the spring court. Part time assassin, now just runs an inn as a wandering hippie.**


	4. Proposal

**I had a hard time writing this chapter so I took several breaks in the middle. Sorry about that, so the quality might not flow as much as the other chapters.**

 **This chapter is mostly about the winter court.**

 **Thank you for all your nice comments!**

* * *

Mois heard the shrill screams of the wind, the icy touch of the air touched her skin. Clearly the two were just entering winter court territory as the temperature harshly decreased and small little flakes of frost started falling.

"A-are...Are you cold?" Angol Mois asked, shivering.

"Not really." Kululu shrugged. "Some fae are more comfortable in different temperatures, and the winter suits me just fine. Ku, ku, ku. What about you?"

Mois nodded quickly, rubbing her hands together.

"Well, I'm not sharing body warmth." Kululu teased.

"I wasn't going to ask." Mois replied quickly. Kululu shrugged. It would have been amusing for her to beg.

"Hey...Hey Kululu, can I ask you something?" Mois finally said.

Kululu prickled. He knew this was coming, her wanting to talk about how he was part demon. She hadn't commented on it at all, but as a human she was bound to have some negative feelings towards demons. Humans always called everything evil a 'demon' despite something not being a demon. "What?" Kululu asked harshly. Quieting her curiosity probably wouldn't do him any good.

"Why aren't we heading to the night court?" Mois asked, to his surprise it didn't have anything to do with his demon heritage or his bad eyesight or how he was defective compared to other fae. Mois's voice was quiet, just barely a squeak.

"The winter court is closer to the spring court." Kululu said quickly. "But as a human I know you wouldn't know that."

Mois nodded, "It's just that I expected that if we wanted information on the red queen, the night court would be our best source."

Kululu felt curiosity bubbling inside of him. "...Why would you think a silly thing like that? Ku, ku, ku." It was a dumb idea, he doubted the night court held anything of interest on the red queen's location, but still he was curious to see how Mois had drawn this conclusion.

"Well, the red queen is the ruler of the fae, right? The guardian. But her court has a name too, obviously. After all, why would there be an unnamed court?" Mois talked quickly.

Kululu rolled his eyes. He knew all this stuff. But he also knew that the queen's court was unnamed. Or at least he had never looked into the name. "Do the humans know the name of the queen's court or have given a name to it?" Kululu asked.

Mois looked down. "It's called the court of light. I assumed that since light and dark are opposites, the night court would be the closest in connection with her castle. Or...Is that a false idea to have?" She looked up.

Kululu paused as he looked down at her. He hadn't actually known that the red queen ruled the court of light. He didn't even know there was a court of light. It annoyed him that a human had known some sort of fae information that he himself hadn't had at the touch of his fingertips. "Is that a human story? That the night court is connected to the red queen?" He asked.

"Um...Well, not exactly...I tried to draw conclusions on my own." Mois admitted.

Kululu scoffed annoyed. "The night court won't have any information on the red queen. I can tell you that for certain."

He picked up his pace.

"Kululu..." Mois's voice was behind him, yet again questioning. "Were you part of the night court?" She asked quietly. She was finally guessing again as to which court he belonged to.

Kululu didn't answer her.

 _He's being quiet. Withdrawn. Does he really not trust me with his information?_ Mois wondered. "It's just that your face looks kind of like the sinisterness that the night court is known for. I at least had an educated guess, right?"

Kululu ignored her mindless chatter.

"Also your powers are sort of dark...I suppose that could be because you're part-demon..." Mois covered her mouth, not wanting to bring that up.

Kululu glanced at her. Was she going to say something about that?

"But still it could also be because you're part of the night court." Mois tried to amuse him with her guessing. "So you're not going to tell me if I'm hot or cold?" She shivered a moment from the cold. "Come on! I really think that if you're not from the night court we should at least go and check out the place. Maybe they will have some information on the red queen. We could do a recon mission! Like a tag team, trying to get the information out of them-" Her chattering stopped as she saw that Kululu was glaring at her. Coldly.

"I refuse to let us go to the night court. If we go there, you're going on your own. I don't care if I need you, I'm not going there." Kululu hissed.

Mois paused for a moment, caught off guard by Kululu's anger and refusal to go there. "...So you're really from there, aren't you?" She asked, picking up that the night court made him a bit emotional. "But you don't want to go back?" She asked curiously.

Kululu narrowed his eyes. "Once we see the red queen I'll go back. I have...Plans for that place." He gave a sinister smile. "But I won't go back until you see the red queen."

Mois didn't ask why.

Maybe she already knew Kululu was planning to ask for the red queen to lift the curse on him, maybe she suspected. Maybe a part of her knew but didn't want to say, but she felt no need to pry any further.

 _I won't ever go back until I'm at full power. Than I can face him again._ Kululu thought to himself. The person he wanted to kill more than anything in the world, more than he even wanted to kill Mois, resided in the night court. The person who had chained him for five hundred years.

And once Kululu had his power, he was going to dance on that man's blood and bones.

* * *

It was only a few hours later that Mois brought up the subject again.

 _I knew I was wrong about Dororo, about not wanting to leave the inn, but I still think Kululu should at least listen to my ideas._ "You don't have to come with me if you don't want to." Mois said hurriedly. "But I really think after the winter court we should check out the night court. Likely they'll have more information than the summer court."

She hoped Kululu would be nice about her ideas. But the words Kululu and nice never got together. Perhaps she didn't understand that the night court was about as touchy of a subject as the demon thing.

Kululu was tired of listening to this. "I said no, and that's final."

"But..." She tried to get him to listen yet again.

"No!" Kululu yelled at her, which startled Mois a little bit. She jumped back. "I'm not going and you're not going there. But you know what? If you do go, you'll die in an instant. And I would not be sorry to see you go." He hissed at her.

He squashed a bug with his fingers. "You're just like a bug to the night court."

Mois sat down on the ground, on the cold snowy ground. It was around time for them to take a short rest anyway. _He's acting scarier than usual. Angrier._ Mois realized. Maybe it was because Kululu didn't really respect her, she knew he kept bringing up the fact that he was a fae and she should respect him or be seduced by him or things like that. He carried himself in a way that made it sound like Mois was slightly inferior to him. But Mois never let it bother her. She had heard from the humans that fae were egotistical, and of the two fae that she had met that had been slightly true.

"Kululu, I'm your companion. I want to be your friend." Mois tried to remind him, "Saying things like you won't be sorry to see me die isn't going to help either of us." She tried to teach him a lesson.

Kululu frowned. _She's right. It'll tip her off too much about what I'm planning for her._ He weaved his fingers through his hair and tried to catch his breath. "You're right. Lost my cool for a second there." He admitted. He had to be more calculating about his movements. She wasn't as foolish as he thought and he couldn't let his guard down.

"But I'm right." He continued, "The night court would destroy you." He grinned, wickedly. "It would be the worst place in the world for a lost little human like you. Why they'd tear you apart limb from limb, stirring up your precious organs into healing remedies, torturing you slowly making sure to savor every single scream of yours. They'd break you. You wouldn't be the chipper human you were before." Kululu smirked, but his words were a warning.

"Is...Is that what they do to humans? Torture them?" Mois asked.

Kululu nodded. "Torture them, challenge them to a game of wits that they all lose in and then torture them, steal organs from them and use them in useless healing remedies like the humans did to fairy's long ago, name your pick! Ku, ku, ku. It's all possible in the night court."

Mois was turning pale, possibly from nauseous, maybe from fear. She didn't know that the night court was like that. "And...You're from there?" She wondered if he'd say he was different than the other fae. She highly doubted that though. From what she had seen of Kululu, he was exactly as he described.

"Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu's grin was wider than she had ever seen before. It was wicked, and sinister. "I tortured and tore apart humans many times~." Kululu admitted, slowly. "Humans just like you, with hair as short as yours, skin just like yours and heart beats quickening in fear until they were at a stand-still." Kululu smiled, "And I didn't do it because of revenge like the other fae did, no not because the humans had hurt their ancestors, I did it for pure fun. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois was silent, just staring at him as if she wasn't breathing. He wondered if she had become cold in fear.

He continued, "I was the most sinister and bored of the fae. You must have known that I wasn't chained because I was innocent, right? People don't become prisoners for being innocent. They're prisoners because they're evil. I'm a villain, Mois." He grinned wider, "And you...You freed me. And then you made a deal with the devil himself. Ku, bet you had such wide-eyed optimism that you didn't think that!"

Mois was silent for a moment. She didn't run. Finally she spoke, "Did...Did killing humans fulfill you? Was it worth it to torture them?" She asked. She was staring at him now, yet again with those eyes that he felt that with an intense gaze like that could burn into his soul itself.

"It cured my boredom." Kululu shrugged. He had wanted to scare her away from the night court. But this conversation wasn't going where he wanted.

Mois scooted closer to him, much to his shock, so that she could get a better look at him. She reached up to his face.

Kululu looked more startled than her, bristling under her touch. Her hand roamed to his forehead and her fingers weaved through his hair, sweeping the hair out of his face to get a better look at him- as if to look into this person that had claimed that she had made a deal with a devil.

"Y-you know..." Kululu didn't know why he was stuttering, really she should be the more afraid one than him. "I was just an example of how bad the night court really is. There are all sorts of people just like me who would be dying to hurt you. I myself could hurt you at any time, since you're just a weak little human."

Mois took her hand off Kululu, much to his relief. She was still looking at him so quietly and honestly though, as if she accepted what he was.

 _Demon._ A voice hissed in Kululu's head. That was what she should be calling him for what he had told her. And he was a demon, so he would accept the hissing accusation. So many others wouldn't hesitate to use that name against him.

"Did you hear me?" Kululu questioned, "I said I could hurt you anytime I wanted."

"You can." Mois finally spoke.

"What?" Kululu asked.

"Hurt me." She looked at him, as if waiting for him to do it. But she didn't look frightened. She had offered exactly the thing that he had threatened against her.

Kululu looked at her carefully. "Is this a test?" He asked, "Because I'm an expert at tests." He boasted. He knew anyone who wasn't either a weirdo or a complete idiot would just let someone hurt them.

"It's a test of the soul." Mois admitted. "I know...I know you only see me as a feeding source. For energy. I'm nothing else to you. I'd like to say that we're friends, but you clearly don't feel any sort of affection for me besides anything physical, which you use as a weapon to tease me. But you're right. You're much stronger than me and have the power to hurt me at any time. So I'm letting you." Mois lay her hands on her lap and waited.

She didn't know why she was gambling on Kululu caring about her more than he clearly did. She knew that this could possible end badly for her, but if Kululu wanted to wave around the fact that he had tortured humans and was evil than she'd just have to prove him otherwise.

Kululu's hand quickly moved a little bit to her face, as if he was going to slap her. He stopped moments before doing it, seeing that she hadn't flinched even a little bit.

"You...Completely and utterly trust me, don't you? You said to hurt you because you don't think I can." Kululu realized. There had been no reflexes against him, her heart rate hadn't even accelerated in fear.

Complete and utter trust was what Kululu had. It was something he had wanted to con the foolish human, but he didn't know how to handle such an intense trust now that he actually had it.

 _She trusts me to be a better person than whatever I was._ Kululu realized. Nobody had ever had those sort of expectations for him. That he would be a better person. And he wasn't sure if he wanted those expectations.

"I don't think you ever would hurt me. Not because of the bond of debt or because you need me, but because I hope that you care about me." Mois tried to smile at him.

She waited patiently, as if to be reassured that was the case.

"I..." Kululu felt his words get caught in his throat. He wasn't exactly sure why he couldn't say it, a lie to make her feel better. "I won't hurt you." He tried to lie, give her a promise that would give her false hope. But for some reason the words felt strangely strangled and honest.

He reached over and ruffled her hair a bit. "But geez, you really have to be less trusting, Mois!" He scolded. "You're a human in a world of fairy's. You're a commodity, you're delicious to everyone, not just me." He reminded her. "Being trusting just means being conned." The lesson he lived by was probably the most honest thing he had ever told her.

It was something he believed full-heartedly.

"I know." Mois said quietly, examining the snow. She was no longer cold, not from the happiness of the conversation but because of the heaviness of her heart. "But I trust you. I've trusted you ever since I've seen you chained to those rocks. You were in no position of power and were physically incapable of tricking me and hurting me. You were just a prisoner." She admitted her reasoning for trusting him. She stood up and brushed the snow off of herself. "You promised you wouldn't hurt me that I'm your energy source. And I have faith that you'll keep me safe from everything because of that. After all you've tried to warn me so many times about how dangerous you are, but you have yet to do anything actually bad." She smiled at him, using logic.

"Y-yeah." Kululu stood up. He clutched at the front of his shirt.

What was this heaviness in his stomach? This pain in his heart? Was...He feeling bad that he was going to betray her, that the trust that she held so highly in him he had already betrayed? That he planned to kill her and give her away to the red queen?

 _It's...It's her own fault for trusting someone like me._ Kululu tried to reason. But he knew that wasn't true. It was his fault for betraying her. Although it was expected of fae to do these sort of betrayals and even more expected for demons to do evil he still felt bad. He had never felt guilt in his life before, but for some reason at the aspect that he was going to give away Mois, he felt the nauseous and disgusting feeling of guilt.

He hated it.

 _This...Isn't because she's just a pretty face or a human._ He realized. _She's not like other humans I've met. Her personality, the way she carries herself carries a sort of goodness, purity and innocence that other humans don't have. She's too good of a person and I actually enjoy talking to her, conversing with her..._

 _Damn, is this because of her darn innocent gaze? Is it changing me? Why is she so interesting, so nice?_ Kululu wondered. He didn't like this development at all.

"I won't try to go to the night court." Mois finally decided, speaking in a hush. "I know you snapped at me because you're worried about going back there." She gave him a sympathetic, merciful smile.

"Worried? Me? Never." Kululu tried to lean back, and appear nonchalant.

Mois didn't look like she believed him. "It's...It's okay." She pat him on the head. Part of her knew that Kululu was scared, after all who wouldn't be of going back to a place that probably imprisoned him? She had assumed it was the night court that had done what they had to Kululu, he didn't have any negative sorts of feelings towards any other place after all. But she also knew that the fae in front of her was very egotistical and would probably never admit to being scared. Even when she had approached him when he was chained up, he hadn't admitted he needed help. He had too much pride. His hair was soft, and she tried to be soothing as she stroked the back of his head, standing up slightly. "We go together, or not at all. I won't take you somewhere that will hurt you."

Kululu frowned at her sweet smile, she was trying to be kind, but it annoyed him. She was treating him, a fae, like he was some sort of frightened child.

"I'm not a child, Mois. I'm an adult. Stop treating me like I'm your kid." Kululu growled, irritated, swatting her hand away.

Mois giggled a bit. She would have never thought she'd meet a fae who would try to argue that they weren't a child. "I don't know about that. You'd be pretty cute as my kid." Mois teased. Teasing was more playful, and it didn't seem harmful to play a bit. They could afford it. And Kululu would have done exactly the same to her.

Kululu frowned deeply. "I'd be pretty cute as your kid?" He looked shocked, "Care to revise that statement?" He knew she was trying to be affectionate, but due to their present situation it still felt weird to him.

"Nope!" Mois giggled. Kululu quickly pulled her down, by the collar, and gave her a sweet kiss.

"I hope you still don't think of me as a kid. I hate to remind you that I'm a fae adult." Kululu didn't let go of her collar.

"Oh? Getting angry, are we?" Mois grinned a bit. This was better than him threatening her because of his worry over the night court. Maybe annoying people did have their benefits. "I thought fae were supposed to be calmed and composed, sort of magical creatures. I didn't know you could get so riled up, Kululu!" She teased.

Kululu pulled her down into the snow with him, and they tussled for a moment, rolling in the snow. Mois giggling all the way as he tried to throw light snow balls at her and sneak small kisses, to try to get her to change her idea.

Finally he was lying over her as she laughed, glad that the situation had finally gotten a bit lighter between them.

"Am I still like a child, Mois?" Kululu asked, slowly kissing up her neck. He knew nobody was watching so these sorts of kisses didn't have any reason, but he wanted to do them- to make her eat her words and take them back.

"Yes..." Mois wouldn't budge, and Kululu started kissing more tenderly, finding a certain spot in her neck that seemed to turn her redder and make her grow warmer he started sucking, "Fine No! I give in!"

Kululu pulled himself away and gave a small smirk. "Good. Knew you'd change your mind eventually." He didn't want her to see him as a child, even if she had been joking. "Ku, ku, ku." He looked down at the girl under him. She was breathing heavily and looking up at him, her cheeks flushed and her mouth in a constant smile, as if she was honestly enjoying this moment with him.

On a whim, he slowly brought his lips down onto hers again. Mois gave him small amounts of energy to keep him strong as she kissed him, running her fingers through his hair and allowing him to kiss her on the ground like that.

She didn't know that for once he wasn't kissing her for the energy. He had simple done it on a whim. He had wanted to feel a sense of equality with her, togetherness, something along the lines. And he certainly wanted to smear that idea out of her head that he was a child.

 _But why?_ Kululu wondered. Why had even a small part of him wanted to strive for equality with her? What was there to be equal on? She was his plaything, something he would sacrifice to become powerful, she was his feeding source. And worst of all she was a weak little human.

But for some reason the way she laughed, the way she smiled, made Kululu feel like the opposite was true. He was the one who was so much inferior to her. Ever since he had seen her in that grove, imprisoned, weak, he had known it wasn't him in power, it was her. She held his energy source on a silver string, giving it to him as she willed.

She was the one who was better than him. A better person, a more perfect individual and having a strength of character he didn't have. Even in battle she didn't let her weakness get to her, getting in the way of danger just to help him.

Despite the fact that he was a fae and was supposed to be better than her, she was so much higher than him. And he desperately wanted to be equal to her. He hated feeling inferior, but it was something Mois made him feel so much.

 _By all logic she should be the one striving for equality, she's the human, I'm the fae. But I'm the one who wants to be as good as her. That's pathetic._ Kululu thought to himself. What was happening to him? He wanted to get rid of that pathetic inferiority. But why the heck did he even feel it?

Perhaps he'd ponder it to himself. There had to be a reason after all.

* * *

They continued heading to the winter court. The more they walked the colder it got. Snowflakes like frost appeared on their breath, and the tips of even their fingertips became blue.

"Hey, don't run off too far!" Kululu scolded Mois, as she didn't take the situation seriously. Despite the cold, she still dropped in the snow every now and then to make what she called a 'snow angel'. As a night court fairy he was used to the cold so he tried not to shiver that much, however since Mois was a human she should be shivering a lot more. But apparently her attitude radiated an inner warmth that made her giggle and squirm at all the snow.

 _I shouldn't have been so worried about being treated like a child. If anyone is childish it's definitely her._ Kululu shook his head to himself.

"But it's so beautiful!" Mois smiled broadly looking at all the snow. "I've never seen anything so soft. Like clouds." She placed her face onto the cold sort of stuff.

"Does the human village not get much snow?" Kululu asked. He would have assumed that their climate was prone to changing, but perhaps Mois had never actually seen snowfall. Either way she was much to scattered, running around and skittering wherever she pleased. "Stay close." He advised. "I might do well in cold temperatures, but I can't see in large amounts of snowfall. It would be annoying if you got lost."

Mois didn't really listen. Finally she looked over at him and gave a quick nod. "I'll be fine. Snow never hurt anyone, did it?"

The moment her head had bobbed up and down, things got colder. Dramatically colder. Even Kululu could feel the temperature decline.

The wind screamed with a chill and Kululu covered his face briefly so that he wouldn't be suffocated by the winds.

"Trespassers." A deep voice that didn't belong to Kululu or Mois seemed to say. "These two aren't from the winter court."

Kululu couldn't spin around fast enough at the realization that the temperature decline had come from fae sneaking up on them. He was knocked out almost instantly, unable to see very well in the harsh snowfall.

Mois was more than an arm's distance away, slowly bringing herself off the ground from her snow angel. The temperature had decreased and the snowfall had increased, bringing a harsh white to the air so that Mois could barely see anything other than Kululu's figure.

 _Thunk._ His figure fell to the ground. It was all she could see and hear, not hearing the other fae behind Kululu who had ambushed them.

No longer having a pleased, over excited glow in her stomach, Mois took a step forward towards her companion.

"K-kululu?" She asked worried. _Did he lie that the temperature wasn't effecting him?_

Out of the white haze a hand reached forward grabbing her arm. Icy to touch, the fingertips of the gloved hand seemed to freeze Mois's skin. She tried to struggle free.

"Well, if this isn't interesting, Bob." The voice- probably belonging to a fae, seemed to say. "I had thought the intruders that were trespassing were fae from a rival kingdom come to snuff us out, but this little one is a human of all things."

Mois was pulled forward, and she finally saw two large fae in gold guard uniforms. Clearly they were from the winter court.

"A human? Well, the high lords will want to see this." The other fae smiled. "The other one's a fae though. Clearly trespassing."

Mois noticed Kululu's body lying in the snow. She continued trying to struggle, but the fae were much stronger than her. "L-let me go!" She cried.

She felt another hand reach out for her and cover her eyes. "Sleep human." The fae said softly, "This is all a bad dream. When you wake up, your salvation will be here."

And even though Mois was trying to fight back, she drifted off to sleep from the spell.

 _No...It can't end all here. It can't. I need to help Kululu._ Sleep took her though. And her mind was gone.

* * *

Kululu woke up in a crystal cell. The walls were made of glaciers and crystal and it was much warmer than the outdoors. His breath seemed to halt as if things were no longer cold, they were just cool.

He was on a bed. Soft like the snow, but warm. Looking around and letting his eyes adjust to the harsh light, he realized almost instantly that he was in the castle of the winter court.

He sat up and got himself out of the bed. Mois was nowhere to be seen. Bars imprisoned him in his cell and he knew without his magic there was no hope at breaking them.

Two guards stood watch.

"You're clearly fae." One of them said, "But from which court? None of us could smell you because of that human on you. She must have neutralized your scent."

 _That can happen?_ Kululu didn't answer. Instead he tried to use his intelligence to listen, to figure out what was happening and what would become of him and Mois. He could have figured out a way out of there, but without any tools that he could use it would be impossible to implement any plans. Still the knowledge that Mois had neutralized his scent sounded odd to him. After all Mois herself had no scent that he could notice and Dororo had been able to notice a scent on him. Of course he had smelled the demon blood more than him being from the night court.

 _Maybe Mois somehow managed to rub her non-scent on me. She's a lot smarter than I give her credit for and she must have realized that the demon blood is a lot stronger of a smell than me being a fae. Maybe she made sure that at first glance it wouldn't be noticed._ He wasn't sure how she had managed to neutralize his scent, but he had to give her credit for not even bringing up the demon heritage but seeing that it was still a problem. Really her doing something was the only answer he could find, unless winter court fae were very bad at their job.

"Tell us which court you come from, which court has declared war on us by sending one of its soldier to our lands, and perhaps your death will be made easy." The guard interrogated.

Kululu didn't answer. _Ah, they think my appearance here was an act of war._ He realized. He remembered at the time he had left the courts and been imprisoned the first words of war had been implied between the courts. Things were becoming less than civil between them.

It was around the same time that the rumors of the evil red queen had started rising, if he remembered correctly.

 _They don't realize that for once I came in peace._ Kululu drew his mouth into a smile. Emotional manipulation was something he could do even without any powers. After all he was a jerk. Perhaps he could convince the guards to just release him.

Kululu's eyes drifted to his side. Where was Mois? Were they feeding her fairy food to make her remain there, or if they thought he was a spy for war, were they killing her? He didn't want her to die, after all he was the one who was going to be the cause of her death.

She'd be useless to him if she died now.

 _That's why I'm worried for her safety, right? Because I need her to die at a different time?_ Worry still clouded his mind as he tried to figure out what words to use on the guards. But Mois being hurt by the winter court fae and being too naive to fight back still clutched at his mind. He didn't want to be worried about her. Concerned about her.

It had to be because he needed her.

"Where's the human I was with? She belongs to me." Kululu said suddenly. He couldn't shake Mois out of his head. "She has nothing to do with the fae, so she's committed no crime."

"We delivered her to the high lord and high lady." The guard said, "Our leaders are interested in humans. They amuse them." The guard smiled. "I wouldn't worry about her though, it's you who should answer and worry about yourself..."

Kululu frowned. The guard wasn't giving him any news at all. He finally stood up and stared straight into the two guards eyes. Even to other fae it was an intimidating glare.

"I am no spy. My name is Kululu of the night court." He told them coldly. "And I am the high lord of the night court itself. And if you were smart you would know that I wouldn't risk sending myself out to the front lines if I was declaring war. Ku, ku, ku. I'm here on business and only business and if you don't want to break fae law and insult my kingdom you will release me this instant." Kululu grinned and pulled his hand between the bars towards the fae guard. He grabbed his collar and pulled him forward.

"If you don't want to die this instant you will release me and bring me to Mois before she is butchered. That human belongs to me and only me and if you don't want me to massacre your whole kingdom, I suggest you work quickly. Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu saw the guard's face turn whiter than the snow itself.

Sure, Kululu might not have had any powers at that moment, but the guards didn't need to know that. They knew how the division of power worked. High lords always had more power than any other fae. They were the strongest in the court after all. Nobles, like Dororo had been, were directly under them.

Guards like they were, were nothing compared to a high lord. Kululu had merely intimidated them with waving his status.

The bars slid down into the ground and Kululu was freed.

"We'll bring you to the high lord and high lady immediately." The guards bowed, still shaking. "Please don't kill us." They begged.

"I'll decide later if you've insulted me enough for me to even care to kill you." Kululu grinned. "Ku, ku, ku."

He tilted his head in slight interest at the mention that there was a high lord and high lady. He wasn't that involved in politics, but he did know that a High lady was supposed to rule the winter court. She must have married and brought a fae in of less power but bumped up his status.

After all, marriage didn't grant the person more power. Only blood did.

* * *

Kululu was brought before the High Lord and High Lady of the winter court. They both sat in two icy thrones with steps in front of them.

Kululu was forced by the guards to bow.

"The spy claims he's not a spy...He's here on business." The guard shook.

Kululu immediately stood up again to look at whatever the High lady and High Lord looked like. After all, one glance could decide what kind of people they were and how best to manipulate them or how tough they would be if things came down to a fight.

The High lady was obviously the one in charge, she had more of an air of arrogance to her. She seemed taller and more professional, more proper. Her chest didn't jut out that much, bony and skinny, but still the perfection that symbolized a fae. Her dress was long and dark blue, frilly and made of the finest silks. It was clearly quite rich.

Her hair was long and light blue, the top of her head having four spikes from her hair as if in a permanent icy crown. She even wore a crown made of crystals.

Her face seemed to be looking down at him and her eyes were filled with a dark discontent. She was clearly suspicious of him. She held a goblet in her hand, sipping some luscious wine in the glass goblet. Rings adjourned her finger, to symbolize that she was the one in power of this court. Kululu noticed a wedding ring, making his theory that she had married a fae of lesser status correct.

"I don't believe for a moment that he's not a spy. He's come to declare war on our kingdom." The fae, hissed. "Did you torture the information of who he was out of him?"

"Momoka!" The other fae, the high lord, covered his mouth in shock. "You can't just torture a visitor!"

"Why not, Fuyuki?" Momoka asked demanding information. Her voice had started out as a hiss but then had calmed into something more soothing. "Torture would be the fae way of doing things."

"We our not as harsh and bloodthirsty as the other courts." Fuyuki nodded to her, "Remember? That is why we are fighting them. Because we're not like them. Not as uncivilized."

Kululu almost expected the high lady to slap her husband for raising a voice against her, but instead she nodded. She leaned her head against her lover's shoulder and smiled.

"You are right. You are always right. Your kindness knows no bounds, Fuyuki. This is why I love you, you always keep my _bloodthirstiness_ in check." Momoka seemed to highlight the word bloodthirsty as if it meant something different to them than it did to Kululu.

Kululu looked up at her husband to try to figure out what kind of person was this kind, almost naive fae that had convinced the high lady to stop.

His skin was perfect and sculpted, but something seemed almost wrong about it, just like with Momoka's. Her skinness and non-plump breasts were unusual among fae women, as if some sort of imperfection, something that was looked down upon by all fae. But her husband, Fuyuki had the same sort of wrongness to his skin, perfect in theory but an air of suspicion to it. It looked pale, cold, just like the winter.

His clothing was different too, not as proper as Momoka's. Instead it seemed mismatched almost half-hazardously put on, as if he hadn't cared about high fashion even if he was a high lord. His hair was short and dark blue and everything about him was perfect.

That was except his eyes. His eyes were something that stood out about him. They didn't feel fae, instead they had an air of normalness to them, kindness. The dark blue orbs might have been pretty, but an entire world shimmered back from them that Kululu had never experienced.

It was as if they had seen mortality itself in front of them.

Fuyuki's eyes were clearly human. And although the rest of his body and his ears might have passed as fae, his eyes did not.

"Where is Mois? Imprisoning that human in the fae world is no offense to me, but if you've laid a hand on her and killed her..." Kululu narrowed his eyes, "I'll end your lives right here." He threatened. "That human belongs to me and it is an act of war to hurt her. Ku, ku, ku. She is the property of the night court."

Momoka's eyes widened. So the stranger was from the night court.

Fuyuki pointed behind Kululu. Kululu looked over his shoulder at another crystal chair.

Mois was sitting perfectly fine and out of harm's way.

"I was actually in the middle of discussing things with Fuyuki and Momoka." She waved, "And then you barged in. You could say, in no harm's way?"

Kululu's heart stilled. His worry sub-sided at seeing his companion. And he still wasn't sure why. He noticed that no food was in front of her. Fuyuki and Momoka had either already tricked her to stay or the rumors about the winter court were false.

"We were never going to hurt her. So you have nothing to worry about." Fuyuki defended, "In fact, we wanted to know what she was doing traveling with a fae."

"You're the barbarian. Not us winter court folk!" Momoka accused, "You were probably taking advantage of her." She walked up to Mois and pat the human on the head as if she was now on friendly terms with her.

Kululu felt weird. _So wait...The winter court is friendly towards humans?_ He glanced at Mois for more information.

Mois smiled at him and put her hands up awkwardly. "I didn't tell them anything about you or us, don't worry! That's for you to tell. Not me."

She didn't really give him much to go on.

"The winter court is known to imprison humans in their court." Kululu continued, "So forgiving me for not believing you have her best interests in heart. In fact, I've bet you've already tricked her into being imprisoned forever in the fae world." He acted like he wasn't okay with that, but really he was just digging for information about if they had already tricked her.

Fuyuki looked apologetic for a moment. "You're right...We are known for that. But it's not for the reason you think. The truth is..." He looked completely honest, which was abnormal for a fae, "I was human once, long ago. I wish to be a friend to all humans, and even after turning into a fae I've managed to do the impossible- I've kept my human heart." Fuyuki stood up proudly.

Momoka looked lovingly at her husband.

Kululu tried not to look shocked. After all Fuyuki had some human qualities. He certainly acted human. But still... _Humans can turn into fae...?_ This was news to him. And he prided himself on being all knowledgeable.

Part of him was interested though in the fact that a high lord had been human. This meant that he was even weaker than Kululu had first envisioned. After all the conversion process didn't give the human much natural blood to go on for power.

Mois herself looked surprised too. "You were human? When...When did you become fae? Why did you become fae?" She looked shocked.

Fuyuki laughed that her questions weren't 'how' but instead why. What an innocent little human.

"Five hundred years ago when I was a child I wondered into the fae forest and became lost. I thought I would become a scholar even though I was a young naive child." He admitted.

Mois looked down. The story of becoming lost was very similar to hers.

"I ran into some fae of the fall court and they managed to trick me into eating. I became unable to leave the fae lands and they captured me, telling me they now owned me." Fuyuki looked sad. "I only lived in the fall court a month living as a slave, before Momoka, who was there on business bought me and took me to the winter court so I could live in freedom. She saved me." Fuyuki looked at his wife lovingly.

"Despite being imprisoned in fae lands, I grew happy with my circumstances, deciding to learn as much as I could about fae as long as I was there. I grew up in the winter court and nobody pressured me into becoming a fae or incorporating. I was friend to all and tried to put a human perspective on their problems." Fuyuki recalled become happy at the news.

"Eventually I fell in love with Fuyuki as he grew older, despite him being human." Momoka cut him off, "If you say that's weird I'll destroy you." She hissed.

Kululu and Mois quickly shook their heads. They didn't want to risk her wrath.

"I...I wasn't right. I wasn't like other fae. And Fuyuki's happiness and human perspective brought joy to my life. I loved his human heart." Momoka smiled, "So when he turned twenty-one, I asked him to marry me and rule the winter court with me. Fuyuki agreed although he felt wrong about ruling the court as a human. He felt he wouldn't get respect. So I told him about how to become a fae, that if you drank the blood of a fae, directly from their neck and enough to fill three glasses, that you would transform into one. It's a long and painful process, weak humans don't make it, instead withering away and dying gruesomely as their bodies are reformed." Momoka explained, "And most humans who go through the process become different...They lose their human emotions, they lose themselves. But Fuyuki wanted to do it anyway. So I told him that he must promise to always keep his human heart and be kind if he wanted to be a fae. And he managed to do it through his will power."

Fuyuki nodded. "So I became a fae for love. I didn't want to grow old while Momoka stayed eternally youthful. After all, she was my everything." He kissed his wife on the cheek.

Despite being married, the high lady blushed bashfully. "Oh Fuyuki..." She squealed.

"That's...That's so sweet. So romantic. And such a miracle that he stayed the same after the conversion process!" Mois was crying from how beautiful the story was. Although parts of her felt sorry for the story, after all parts of it had been sad. Fuyuki had been captured and torn away from his family and as a child been treated as a slave. The story wasn't all about his happiness.

Kululu however was reading between the lines and listening to how Momoka told the story. There was more to it than that. He smiled as he realized what she was implying. _This will make it easier if we need to fight._ He realized. "Fuyuki's not the only one who was originally human though, is he, high lady?" His term was mocking, "You were also human once, weren't you?" He deciphered, "After all, how else would you know so well the conversion process and how painful it was?"

Momoka looked shocked at Kululu's implication, but after Fuyuki steadied her and put a hand on her shoulder, she nodded.

"It was 1000 years ago..." She admitted.

"Ah, back when some courts were trying to make friends with humans." Kululu recalled. 1000 years he had been active after all, "I believe the winter court kidnapped a noble lady at that time from the human country, didn't they?" He asked remembering his history. That was the rumors at least.

"They didn't kidnap!" Momoka frowned, "They wanted to find peace with the humans. At that time the humans hunted fae thinking eating their wings would make them immortal. My family had killed fae for generations." She frowned, "The high lord wanted peace and wanted to align our lands. So he offered marriage to me. He was very kind teaching me about fae customs and all, he told me I'd be the high lady with him and fed me his blood so I could rule by his side." Momoka admitted.

"Did you kill him?" Kululu asked, smiling as Momoka shook. She must have betrayed her fiance to be.

"No. Although I didn't love him, he was my friend. But my butler Paul was protective and beloved him to be foul, so he organized his death. He was poisoned and although I wasn't blamed it was still unfortunate. I lost my human emotions in the process, only being blood thirsty at times, snapping from cold to evil." Momoka admitted. "The winter court tried to hide the fact that they had no legitimate high lord or high lady by blood, so I took over. It's the greatest kept secret by the winter court. But you managed to guess every part of it, didn't you?" Momoka accused.

Kululu nodded, laughing to himself. "Power warps in the fae world. Without being born into this position how did you keep from losing yourself? Ku, ku, ku." If one wasn't born into power, the power would warp their brain making them mad was what Kululu had heard.

"Fuyuki." Momoka said honestly, "Before I met Fuyuki I would hurt and imprison humans out of jealousy, but once I saw him...I was reminded of what I used to be. He brought me back from the brinks of insanity. He's saved our court." Momoka nodded.

"But you try to keep your dislikable reputation." Kululu guessed, "Of trapping humans despite being their friend. You don't want the other courts to think, no to know your weak. After all you were humans, you don't have any natural fae power. Only the small amount of power that you seeped out of the fae you drank the blood from. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu realized.

Both Momoka and Fuyuki were quiet.

"They probably don't have no power." Mois said quietly. "They probably just don't know how to use it as well as a fae. I would think that would be what would happen to a human after all Momoka drunk the real high lord's blood." Mois looked apologetic at calling him 'real' "Sorry!" She squeaked out.

Momoka glared at her for a moment.

"It's all right. You pick up things quickly. You're right." Fuyuki nodded, "We don't know how to do things as well as a fae. Especially since we're still clinging to our humanity, desperately. It's...It's not exactly right to change into something you weren't meant to be. It gives your body nightmares almost every night. So we try not to use our power."

"However, I am the high lady and one in control." Momoka sat back down in her throne, "And I will use my power."

As if an invisible hand clutched at both Kululu and Mois's minds, Momoka tried to prod them. "Tell me. Why are you here?" She demanded.

Kululu tried to figure out what to do as his mind was prodded. He didn't want all his information in Momoka's hands. But he knew some fae could read minds, he just also didn't have the power to put up a mental shield. He didn't have the energy. So he let a half-truth float to the top of his head, tricking the tricksters by giving them only some information so they could be satisfied. _I came so you could imprison Mois, the human. Keep her in the fae lands with me._ He frowned as that information came to the top of his head instead of something like 'talk about Mois'. He didn't need them to know that he was trying to trap Mois, especially since they had confessed they were an ally of humans.

Mois didn't hide her thoughts and desires. _I need help. I want to know where the red queen is._ She pulled the hand in her mind closer that was prodding her, making it so open that there would be no more need for prodding above the surface.

Momoka opened her eyes. "I have their reasons. The human came for information on the red queen. And the fae..." She cracked her knuckles, "He wants us to imprison the human. He's heard the rumors about our kingdom."

Kululu tried to avoid Mois's eye contact. He could see the shock in her face from his peripheral.

"You...You wanted them to imprison me?" Mois was shocked, "What...What do you mean by that, Kululu?" She walked over to him, grabbing the cuff of his shirt, shaking almost. "You mean you wanted them to take care of me? You wanted rid of me?"

Kululu didn't look at her. He tried to pull his hand away.

"Do you want me gone? I don't understand." Mois frowned, "Why would you want me imprisoned?"

"Did you think I would just let you wander back to the human lands." Kululu said quietly and coldly, "I warned you, didn't I? That I was a jerk. You're valuable to me. I can't afford to have you going back there. I need you to stay."

Mois looked shocked, and almost betrayed. But it was true that Kululu had warned her. And his reasoning was completely accurate. He needed her.

Her lip quivered for a moment, but she remained silent. Her arms fell to her side, not reaching out to him to come to an understanding.

He would have felt bad if he still didn't feel the same way. But there was not a single part of him that wanted Mois to go back to the human lands.

Fuyuki looked at Mois apologetically, but tried to treat her like a person, an equal, verses the way Kululu had treated her. "I...I don't know where the red queen is. I'm sorry." He apologized to her, "Both Momoka and I were humans, so we don't know much about the ruler of the fae world." He tried to give Mois the information he desired, "Why do you want to meet with her? The red queen?"

Mois didn't answer. She was still thinking about Kululu.

"She wants to negotiate with her for peace with the humans. The fae have been pillaging the human village she comes from." Kululu explained for her.

Both Momoka and Fuyuki looked confused. "Not our kingdom." Momoka defended, "In the last five hundred years we've been too busy with the other fae to deal with humans."

Fuyuki nodded, but still believed Mois. "I don't think I could negotiate with the red queen myself. But I'll do anything to help the humans. The winter court will be your ally in this quest and if you need us to back you up, we'll be there." He handed Mois a small bell to ring if she needed them. "We don't have much fighting power though." He looked apologetic. "I'm sorry we don't know where the red queen is."

Momoka nodded, agreeing with Fuyuki's actions.

"That's all right...An alliance is more than I could have hoped for." Mois smiled a bit.

Kululu sighed. So there were now an alliance with the other court. He wondered if this alliance went out to anything more than the red queen.

Momoka glanced at him, and as if predicting what he was thinking she shook her head. They were only Mois's allies.

"That's all then? Let's leave then in peace. Perhaps the summer court has some information." Kululu sighed, trying to be calm and normal to get Mois to act normal to. He turned around.

"Wait. Our business is not done." Momoka called, she walked down to Mois. "Your name is Mois, correct?"

Mois nodded. Cradling the bell and sticking it in her pocket.

"You are a human lost in the fae world. This quest you're on is dangerous and possibly unnecessary. I hate to imply that time has passed since you became lost in this forest, but this kingdom has a way of tricking humans. Your problem in the human village may already be solved." Momoka said slowly.

Mois looked confused for a moment, but then nodded. It was true that she had slept in the forest in the beginning for who knows how long. She had never thought about how much time had passed.

Momoka took her hand in hers. "If you seek safety, comfort, let me make you an offer. Become a fae of the winter court. I can turn you into one, you can be one of the ladies of the court and you can live your life in peace and happiness." She entwined their fingers and shot a glare at Kululu, "And better yet, you'll know that someone is looking out for your needs. Me and Fuyuki can take care of you. You won't have someone around you who is only looking out for him."

Kululu swallowed hard as time seemed to stand still at Momoka's offer. Becoming a fae would be an exhilarating suggestion for anyone. After all fae were wonderful creatures, much better than humans.

That and he had been mean to Mois. He had betrayed her. There was no reason for Mois to stay with him, especially since he had even more plans to betray her.

But still, it wasn't the aspect of Mois becoming a fae that worried him. After all, he could still use her energy if that was the case. They had a soul-bond after all. The words that worried him was Mois becoming a lady of the winter court. The winter court had nothing to do with him and he and Mois would go their separate ways.

 _I don't want to never see Mois again. I don't want her to abandon me._ He realized. There was still so much about her that confused him, especially his growing concern and interest in her. His growing odd feelings. His desire to make her feel like they were equal for some reason.

Heck, he just wanted her to be with him, by his side. It didn't even matter if she was kissing him. But Mois had every reason to take Momoka's offer. "She- she won't..." Kululu realized he was talking out loud.

"It's not your choice. You don't own her. Nobody owns anyone else." Momoka growled.

Kululu felt himself grow quiet because Momoka was right. He listened closely to Mois.

Mois looked shocked at the offer. She took her hands off of Momoka's and glanced over at Kululu for a moment to see if he was worried. Kululu tried to look calm.

"I'm sorry." She looked apologetic. "The snow here might be beautiful, but the winter court is not my place. I don't think its the place I was meant to be." Mois bowed her head apologetically.

Fuyuki and Momoka glanced at each other. The winter court was perfect for them.

Kululu breathed a sigh of relief. The annoying cold might have just turned her off of the desire.

"We can still turn you into a fae. For your safety at least." Momoka offered.

Mois shook her head quickly. "I don't want to." She refused.

It was the first time Momoka had ever heard someone refuse to be a fae.

Even Kululu was shocked.

"Why?" He asked, slowly. "Do you want to remain in that human body of yours, being naive and little...Powerless against us fae? You've been beaten thrice now if you count me by fae, you've been lucky to survive this long. So why decide to stay like that...Weak?"

Mois ignored him.

"I don't think you could turn me into a fae anyway." She said quietly, to herself. Smiling she waved, "Thank you for the help and alliance. I knew talking instead of fighting would get us through things!"

Kululu looked surprised but pleased as she said her good-byes and walked out the door of the castle. He followed after.

Quickly they were on their way out of the winter court. There was silence between them, Mois still being slightly mad at Kululu's betrayal, but Kululu just felt relieved.

 _She's not hurt. She's still with me and I know the weaknesses of the winter court. I'd count this day as a victory._ He thought to himself.

He picked up his pace to walk by his companion's side. For some reason he wanted to be closer to the human girl.

He was glad she was still with him.

* * *

 **I would really like to hear your comments on things.**

 **This chapter had the addition of Fuyuki and Momoka to the cast.**

 **Momoka- High lady of the winter court.**

 **Fuyuki-High lord of the winter court.**


	5. The Real Sore Loser

**Half way through the story. Probably the last chapter for this week (I might write more on Tuesday) because I have finals week and will be focusing on that.**

 **Sorry!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Also some sexual situations this chapter. Might as well go fully with that M rating, right?**

* * *

The air was still slightly chilly, but the coldness of the winter court was long behind them. No longer was the ground covered by frost or snow, but instead yellow-ish green grass.

Mois had been told that they were passing through what was the territory of the fall court on their way to the summer court- the last place they would visit for information on where the red queen's castle was.

Kululu had been sure to reassure her that he was smart enough to figure out a way to get to the castle even if the summer court had no information for them. He had promised to look over old texts and figure out clues on how to open up the pathway to the sacred castle as if he himself was determined to go there as well for his own reasons.

Currently Kululu was enjoying a luxurious nap, wanting to cherish the preciousness of lying down. He hadn't had much of a chance to have different positions in his imprisonment.

Mois herself was looking down at her sleeping companion, not exactly the most pleased with him. He had brushed off his desire to imprison her in the fae world not bringing it up again and brushing it off just like anything else she would ask about him. So many subjects were off limits to him and although she could understand him being touchy about his blood or his past, she felt concerned that he wouldn't apologize for wronging her.

 _Perhaps I wasn't straightforward enough about the fact that I wanted him to apologize._ She couldn't really imagine Kululu as the type of person to give her a 'I'm sorry', he had too much pride, but she also couldn't say he had never apologized since she hadn't tried to get an apology out of him.

Mois looked at the fae that she had desperately wanted to befriend. He was so much calmer, so much more innocent when he was sleeping.

She sprinkled some flower petals on him that she had torn up in her game of 'he loves me, he loves me not'. She smiled once to herself.

"You're awfully pretty, but I suppose that's what all fae are supposed to be like, aren't they?" Mois spoke allowed, trailing her finger down Kululu's chin, as if to physically see their differences. "Your personality is awful though." She scowled.

She thought for a moment, "I mean, yeah everybody says fae are supposed to be like you, tricksters and jerks, but...I'm not sure if they're really like that. I don't think anyone has ever heard a fae claim to be a jerk till the end. That's something entirely you."

Really Kululu was totally right about himself. He was a villain. And she had helped him. But at the same time there was a part of her heart that was still invested in him.

 _Stop that, Mois. You have other concerns other than his well being. He's childish and egotistical, but at the same time...I feel like I learn a lot by being with him. I don't really see the world with his scrutiny in pessimism and I would have probably gotten in a lot of trouble without him._ Her gaze softened as she looked at him.

He had betrayed her, but he had said it himself that he had only done that because he valued her. He really was useless without her.

She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. It was different than anything else she heard. All fae had a unique heartbeat with their own essence. Some were quieter than human's and some were just as erratic as Kululu's own laughter.

Mois pulled her head away and looked back at Kululu's face. He would deny it of course but he carried his own sort of naivety, a naivety towards people. Kululu was always suspicious of another person, caring nothing for them, but it was only to hide that he didn't know how they'd act. He seemed to be especially unfamiliar with forgiveness and affection from what Mois saw.

Pure, unconditional affection was something Kululu was naive in.

"I forgive you." Mois spoke quietly. She was much more patient than people gave her credit for. She was able to wait for Kululu to apologize to her, for him to care about her the way she cared about him.

She could wait. After all he had waited five hundred years for her to arrive and free him.

She stood up. While he slept she could finally take some time to try to hunt some animals or meat. She couldn't eat the fae food or grown fruits or vegetables in the fae kingdom but as long as she ate meat that was dead, she wouldn't be bound by law to remain in the kingdom. So she had been trying to learn how to hunt small animals and roast those.

Unfortunately she wasn't very good at it so she hadn't had much time to practice. _Back home I never needed to do this._

Walking away while Kululu slept so he wouldn't worry, she went to go look for some animals.

* * *

She wasn't very good at climbing trees, didn't have the materials to make any traps, and didn't have any tracking skills so obviously she didn't find any animals.

But eventually she did hear something large tromping through the undergrowth. Pushing aside a bush, Mois peeked through the leaves.

What she saw was no animal. Instead it was a young man walking around loudly. He wore a large green cape and had easy, loose, clothing. His hair was messy and ruffled black and he wore a bright yellow head band.

What was most obvious about him was he was human. His ears were not pointed, he knew nothing about the forest as he was showing by tromping around, and his skin was flawed and average, but despite that he still had a naive smile and confidence that only a human would carry.

Mois was about to reach out and call to him, before she was reminded of Kululu. _Kululu would always be suspicious of a stranger._ She reminded herself. _He'd call me dumb for talking to him without first knowing his motives. After all he could possible not be human, he could be wearing a disguise, or be a fae with a glamor._

Although there was no need to wear a glamor in the kingdom of the fae, Mois had heard rumors from the human village that some fae sneaked in there pretending to be humans, to lure humans into the forest. Although she had been told most glamors had an air of magic around them, still a layer of unnatural attractiveness or a sparkle on the skin.

The human in front of her clearly did not have any attractiveness about him. He was completely normal. And that calmed Mois, there was something alluring and attractive about the natural normalness in its own way.

 _Stop panicking and go talk to him. You aren't Kululu. There's no reason to be suspicious._ Mois thought to herself.

"Yo!" She heard the human call. He had somehow spotted her hiding in the bush.

She fell over onto the ground.

The human laughed. His laugh was loud, nasally and natural. It was beautiful in its own way.

"I didn't think you'd be so startled." He wiped a tear from his eye, "I just wanted to say hi. I sensed you in the bushes. It's really nice to see another human around! It makes me feel so happy!" He jumped in glee.

Mois smiled to herself. "H-happy?" She blushed a bit. Hearing that someone was happy to be around her and it was nice to see her wasn't something she was very used to.

The man helped her up. "The name's Keroro. You on a journey or something? Or are you just lost? Most humans out here are lost, but I suppose if you're all alone you can buddy up with me." Keroro offered.

Mois shook her head, "My name's Mois." She greeted, "But I'm not all alone. I'm traveling with a-" A person she was soul-bonded with. "Friend." She finished. "He's out sleeping, so I was looking for food."

"Ah." Keroro rubbed his chin, "You've probably had difficulty finding human food in the fae kingdom, haven't you?"

Mois nodded.

"Don't worry!" He showed her a bag over his shoulders, "I have tons of human food! And I'd be more than happy to share in return for company. It's rare to see a friendly face. And these fae are all such jerks." Keroro wrinkled his face. "I just stayed at this weird inn and there was this fae guy who was always crying because I couldn't get his name right." He shared a funny story.

Mois laughed despite knowing who Dororo was. Something about his stories just made her want to feel included and laugh.

"I'd be happy to have some company then during a meal." Mois smiled.

"Good! I can make some great curry then." Keroro gleefully giggled. "Where you headed? Back to the human world?"

"The summer court." Mois answered honestly. She felt no reason to lie.

"Mind if I accompany you and your friend? It's nicer to travel in a group. I don't do well on my own. It's boring." Keroro huffed.

"I...I don't know. You'll have to ask my friend. But I'd be happy to have you." Mois smiled.

Keroro shook her hand. "You're a nice girl."

Mois grinned widely, not just because there was another human and she felt less alone, but because Keroro was nice.

* * *

Kululu woke up with Mois by his side. He still didn't know if she was over his betrayal of trying to imprison her in the fae lands.

"Here." She handed him a plate of something, curry.

Kululu sat up at the offer of a meal. _She...She made me something? Even though I was a jerk to her?_ He felt himself smiling a bit. Just a small smile as if it was hiding away from the world. He remained unaware that Mois's new companion, Keroro, had made the dish. _Must have been hard for her to find all this here, but whatever. She must have worked so hard to make me this. I bet it's with that emotion called 'love'. She's a sweet, innocent girl._ He tried to deny it to himself but he was honestly excited at the aspect that she had made specifically him something filled with her love.

Having no utensils, he scooped some of it into his mouth. Kululu hadn't mentioned to Mois how much he loved curry.

The taste was bland, and filled with chocolate for some reason. It also had the wrong herbs and spices and just seemed like a mess. It was the worst curry Kululu had ever tasted and it was difficult not to choke on it.

"How is it?" Mois asked.

Kululu swallowed with great difficulty as to not offend her. "It's...It's delicious." He lied. He shoveled some more into his mouth, after all it was still special, she had made it just for him. It was filled with her emotion and despite the technical of it being disgusting, the mind could make it passable.

Mois clapped and smiled. She waited for something.

"What else do you want?" Kululu asked curiously seeing that she was staring at him expectantly.

Mois looked down at his hands. "An...An apology maybe." She said quietly. "About trying to imprison me."

Kululu realized she was finally bringing that up. He looked back down at his plate. "Sorry isn't a word I'm familiar with." He admitted. He knew she deserved an apology, but really trying to imprison her was a lot less than trying to get her killed.

He still felt bad though. Mois looked really sad.

"I know." Mois told him, "And I don't want you to say it if you don't feel it."

Kululu nodded, "I don't feel apologetic in the least." He answered honestly.

Mois didn't look very happy about that confession.

"And for that I feel sorry I suppose. That I don't feel sorry." It didn't make much sense. But Mois knew he was trying. She smiled at him, a small but comforting smile as if he was making little steps.

He reached out as she looked at him, and caressed her cheek. They were alone, there was no reason to be distant.

And for some reason he wanted to comfort her, from the pain he had caused.

Betrayal was something he was very much familiar with, but it felt sort of wrong to betrayal Mois, who trusted him completely.

Mois leaned into his caress.

"I didn't want you to leave. I need you, Mois. And just like all fae I did drastic measures to keep you." Kululu explained to her. _I...I didn't want you to go back to a world I didn't belong and couldn't follow. The human world._

"That's not a good reason to imprison someone." Mois frowned at him. She knew he was trying to express himself in words, but she still felt the need to scold him. "You should have just told me. I would have been willing to listen."

Kululu knew that was true. He took his hand off her cheek. "Keep your guard up around me. Because I won't promise that I won't try to trick you to stay here again. My mistake was trying to get the winter court to be a middleman."

Mois nodded. That was about as much as she could hope for from Kululu.

He looked back down at his empty plate. His stomach hurt from the meal, but he still enjoyed the fact that Mois had made it for him. "Thank you for the curry."

Mois looked confused. "Oh, I didn't make it!" She giggled, correcting him. "My friend did. Our new companion." She corrected.

"Friend...? Companion...?" Kululu looked confused. And now he felt like he wanted to vomit at the fact that it had just been bad curry.

"I met him while I was looking for food and he made the curry with human ingredients. He's really nice. Oh...Where is he?" Mois looked around.

"Here!" Keroro stumbled out of the bushes, having left to go empty his bladder. "So this is your friend?" He glanced at Mois, "I suppose it makes sense that for your protection you would party around with a fae."

Kululu stared straight at Keroro in shock as Mois and Keroro made light conversation and chattered away.

His face, his goofy grin, his messy hair, even his voice. It was exactly like the face that Kululu could never forget.

The face of the wizard that had cursed him and started the spiral of his downfall and had made Kululu lose his powers.

Hot rage went through Kululu's body as he stood up and walked stiffly forward to Keroro, his hand shooting out as if to choke him. Before his hand wrapped around the human's throat, he stopped.

 _It can't be him. Humans don't have that long of lifespans. The person I met lived five hundred years ago._ Kululu reminded himself.

This rage running through his veins didn't dignify a fae, he pushed it down, storing it away for when he needed it. He gave Keroro a cold glare.

"Kululu, this is Keroro. My new friend." Mois introduced, "Keroro, this is Kululu, my friend." She greeted, introducing the two of them.

"Nice to meet you!" Keroro stuck out his hand.

Kululu just glared at him as if he was plotting his murder. It was even the same name. Keroro. "I don't particularly like humans. So scram before I eat you for breakfast. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu grinned at him.

Keroro shivered.

"Kululu." Mois frowned, "Keroro wants to travel with us for a bit. You could say, safety in numbers?"

"You don't need numbers. You have me." Kululu pointed out. "I'm a fae. A powerful fae." He made it very clear that he was powerful as if to over-compensate for how he wasn't.

"Oh, Kululu, we could always use some help and company!" Mois smiled as if not realizing that Kululu didn't want more company, "And it will only be for a bit. We can't leave him all on his own, I mean he's a human!" She pointed to him, "He'll probably just wander off and die."

Kululu looked at Keroro with great dislike. "I don't see much of a problem with that. We don't need another human. One in my company is enough."

Keroro saw that his possibility of being in this group was rather shaky at the moment. "It was a real miracle to see another human around and unharmed." Keroro slid over to Mois, "And especially a really cute one!" He teased, pinching at her cheek as if she was a doll.

It was quite insulting and rather childish, but Mois seemed to giggle and smile as if enjoying the attention.

Kululu narrowed his eyes even more at Keroro. _Don't care if he wasn't the guy who cursed me I don't like him._ He slid his hand gracefully in between Mois's cheek and Keroro's hand.

Mois glanced at him. "Awww...Please, Kululu? Please can we take care of the human?" She looked so excited, her eyes were so large and pleading. She seemed to talk about taking care of Keroro as if he was some sort of dog, or a pet that she was begging to keep.

Kululu felt himself sweat as Mois stared at him, moving closer. He had encountered all sorts of things in his life, but never this. And this puppy-dog eye thing was frightening, it was like it was mind controlling him to have an inability to refuse her.

It made him nervous that he was so wrapped around her finger. He was a powerful, amazing, dignified fae, he shouldn't listen to a human, but he felt himself nervously stutter a "F-fine...Just stop that." Despite that.

Mois cheered.

"What kind of landfill do we have to drop you at?" Kululu asked, "When will we be rid of you?" He glared at Keroro.

Keroro shrugged. "I'm just adventuring. I came to this place for adventure. For fun."

And there was type B of the lost human. The human's that were stupid enough to go to a dangerous place just for the thrill of adventure and ended up dead.

Kululu didn't know how Keroro had survived that long.

"I'm so glad you'll be with us, Keroro!" Mois snapped her head away from Kululu, ending staring at him to shower Keroro in attention, something that Kululu didn't know if he liked, "Oh, please tell me about all your adventures! It's been so long since I saw a human!"

Keroro grinned. An excuse to boast about himself! His favorite.

"All right. If you insist." He put his arm around Mois's shoulder as if to lead the way. "My most recent adventure, I of course got through with the skin of my teeth but I saved a village nonetheless because I'm amazing..."

* * *

It was a long walk, and Keroro's voice grated on Kululu's ears more than anything he had ever experienced. He even felt himself begging for the silence of the grove he was imprisoned in.

Mois hadn't stopped smiling since she had met the guy too, and she was listening to all his stories so fascinated. They were always walking in front of him and whenever he tried to separate them, Mois would soon squirm back to Keroro to talk to him.

He understood that Mois was lonely. She hadn't seen another human for who knew how long. And Keroro was speaking about humans in a way he couldn't empathize with or understanding so he didn't have much to offer the conversation.

Not only that, but every time something even remotely different came along their path, Keroro stopped everything to make a big deal out of it claiming a rabbit could be fae danger and then tried to all heroic- an obvious muse just to impress Mois.

And it worked a ton. Mois always seemed so impressed, cheering for Keroro and congratulating him for protecting them.

 _I don't know if I hate him because he looks like the guy who cursed me or because Mois's paying so much attention to him. Eh, it could be both. All I know is I really hate him._ It was pathetic to be jealous of a human, but parts of Kululu could still feel himself writhing in jealousy.

Out of this entire trip, Mois had only really paid attention to him and been concerned with him. He hadn't ever had to actually attempt to get her attention. She had always just willingly offered it unconditionally.

 _I just told her I didn't want her leaving too. And what does she do almost immediately? Get invested in a dumb human._ Kululu thought to himself. He imagined them running back off to the human world together, getting married, settling down with ten boring kids. Dumb human stuff like that.

Maybe he'd scam their kids. Trick them into jumping off some sort of cliff. He crossed his arms, glaring at the two bitterly.

"So which human village did you live in, Mois? There's a lot surrounding the fae world." Keroro finally said.

"The one with roofs." Mois answered enthusiastically and not very specifically.

Keroro looked confused. But he tried to shake off the clear expression that judged Mois and made it seem like he thought she was weird.

"I lived in a big city, a port town actually. Guil, it's called. And geez did I amass the fortune there. Do you believe me that I own several mansions and a manor? Because I do. It's where I store my collection of gundam. Oh that's a human toy, I don't know if they have them in your village, they're like tiny robots." He chattered and explained.

Kululu moved forward and put his hand on Mois's shoulder. "You're chattering too much, it's much too annoying." He glared at Keroro, "I've decided to revoke the offer of letting you travel with us, you're obviously leading us in circles hurting our chances of getting anything productive done. Ku, ku, ku. Leave or I'll make you."

Keroro looked at Kululu confused. He didn't know Kululu disliked him.

"Kululu! Keroro hasn't done anything wrong." Mois frowned.

Kululu raised an eyebrow. He had done a lot wrong in his opinion.

"Kululu, was it? Fae respect wit, right?" Keroro asked. He sat down. "Then let's play a game. Do you like games?"

Kululu bit his lip. He did. Back when he had been in the night court he had challenged humans to games for their lives. They had always lost. After all nobody could beat Kululu in any games.

"Fine. But if you lose, you have to leave us alone. And that means me _and_ Mois." He snarled the and. Really he meant especially Mois.

He sat down in front of Keroro.

Keroro pulled something out of his bag, it was a barrel of dice and some tokens. "I know of fae games." He admitted. "And this one is my favorite because it has an element of wit and chance to it. It's about cheating better and more than your opponent."

Kululu's eyes widened at the game. He recognized it. It had been the one he had played with the last human he had happened upon- the Keroro from five hundred years ago.

 _So...This will be like a rematch, huh?_ He thought to himself. "Ku, ku, ku. Got it."

"If I win you have to let me travel with you." Keroro smiled. "Would you like to go first?"

Kululu nodded. "Wish me luck, Mois."

Mois didn't really see that there was any need to play this game. "Um...Good luck?" She smiled awkwardly. She didn't really want Keroro gone.

"Wish me luck too!" Keroro smiled.

"Good luck!" Mois cheered, better the second time.

Kululu frowned. _I'll prove her wrong. I'll show her and win. Then this Keroro/Mois thing will be over._ Maybe he should have been focusing on something else, like trying to actually get Mois's affection if he cared about it so much and wanted it, but instead he challenged Keroro to a game.

He wasn't used to solving his problems straightforward.

Kululu of course, lost the game in a matter of minutes.

"I win! Problem solved!" Keroro smiled.

Kululu frowned at him. He glared.

* * *

It had been five hundred years ago, back when he ruled the night court that Kululu had met the wizard Keroro.

Keroro had been pushed in front of him. A wandering human in his territory. Kululu enjoyed torturing humans, but what he loved more than anything was seeing their hopes destroyed, giving them a chance and then mocking them when they lost.

That's why it was law to give every human a chance to beat him in a game. They would go free if they won. In all Kululu's years nobody had ever won.

"S-so...All I have to do is beat you in this game?" Keroro asked, being seated in a soft chair. The human looked nervous, probably at the aspect at losing his life.

"Yep. And I'm a nice guy too!" Kululu tried to grin, "I'll let you choose the game." He knew all of them, and he could win in all of them. He calculated his moves faster than anyone else could, his intellect his mind, was far superior to that of human and fae.

Keroro nodded. He pointed to a game with dice. "That one. I think I've heard how to play that one...Will I really die if I lose?" He seemed nervous.

"Yep!" Kululu smiled in a sing-song voice. "You sure are a boring looking human. Oh well, I can't wait to hear you scream. Ku, ku, ku."

They had played with not much dialogue between them. Keroro had of course been competing for his life and Kululu had been threatening him and playing mind games on him the entire time to watch him squirm, but out of whatever...sheer incompetence, luck, Keroro managed to beat Kululu by a mile.

Kululu stared at the board. It was his first loss and he couldn't cope. His hands were shaking. "I...I lost."

"Yep! So I suppose I'm free to go!" Keroro smiled, "That wasn't too hard. Actually pretty fun." He nudged Kululu's arm. "So glad I slipped on that banana peel and made that final move."

He stood up, ready to leave.

Kululu was cold. "No. You won't be going anywhere." Magic radiated from his fingers. "I won't let a human beat me, ku, ku, ku. I'm still stronger than you, better than you at everything, even if you beat me in a dumb game. You will die for insulting me!"

Magic black vines, sharp and twisty rose out of the ground. The air seemed to be sucked out of everything, like a vacum. Keroro didn't fall to the floor though.

"That's cheating. You're a sore loser." He hissed. Instead of falling to the ground and begging, he pointed his hand at Kululu. "You thought I was just an average human, but I'm stronger than you think." Magic radiated from his fingers, a beam that shocked Kululu and sent him flying onto the ground.

It wasn't fae magic. It was purely human magic. Keroro was a wizard.

"You will never use that power you pride yourself on again unless you share it with someone else. Your intellect, your machines, everything. It will be gone because you couldn't handle losing. You'll need to devote yourself to a single person, sharing their energy to be able to do anything. You'll be nothing without others." Keroro cursed.

Kululu felt his power drain out of him. And just like that, he was nothing. And Keroro turned around, his cape with stars shimmering all over it flying behind him.

The wizard was gone, and Kululu was for once weak and nothing. It was over.

* * *

Kululu had learned his lesson about being a sore loser. But he did complain a lot about losing. He didn't bring much attention to it, grumbling behind Keroro and Mois as they continued chattering as if forgetting about him almost instantly.

"I'm hungry." Kululu complained.

"I can make you something." Keroro tried to be friendly, "I'm a great cook."

"No, I already learned my lesson with that. I'm hungry for energy I mean. Ku, ku, ku." Deciding to throw a wrench in whatever relationship was developing between Mois and Keroro, he walked forward to Mois and spun her around.

Mois blushed as she realized what Kululu was about to do. She stayed still for a moment, allowing him to bend down and kiss her on the lips.

He made sure to be extra slow as he drank from her, pulling her closer and stroking down her back as he had learned she liked. Mois almost on instinct ran her hand throw Kululu's hair.

Kululu slowly dived his tongue into her mouth, making sure that Keroro was seeing this and began to kiss her with more passion, moving her forward ever now and then to just get more of her, to run his teeth along the bottom of her lips, to suck on her.

It was a very heated kiss. Kululu made sure of it. Finally he pulled away once he felt Mois run her finger along his chest as if looking for the buttons. She was getting a little bit too into this, which he knew was natural for her and at this point if she desperately started undressing him in front of Keroro, he would be quite pleased with that development as well because it would probably scare Keroro off.

Honestly he was happy to be getting this attention from Mois. It was something he had thirsted much more for throughout the day than the energy itself.

He was just a bit afraid of moaning into her, or letting himself become undone or get into it too. Alone, maybe he could experiment with getting that into it, letting her do what she wanted to him and exploring as much as she wanted, but in front of Keroro he wasn't that prepared or comfortable for it.

So he pulled away.

He glared at Keroro who seemed rather awkward about the display he had just seen. "She's mine." He hissed to him when Mois wasn't listening, still slightly dazed. "Get it?"

Keroro avoided eye contact.

Kululu nodded to himself. He was finally feeling better. And it wasn't just from the energy boost.

* * *

It was becoming night, and so Mois, Keroro and Kululu set up camp. Keroro had left to go gather supplies briefly, so Mois and Kululu sat down to make a fire and rest.

"Keroro's pretty great, isn't he?" Mois asked, "He's a fun guy."  
"Careful. If you talk too much about him you won't be able to get to sleep. And I know how much you love sleep." Kululu spoke in a bored tone. He was tired of Keroro. He pulled Mois towards him after she had made a fire, as if to give her a place to rest. On him.

Mois blushed a bit, but was happy enough for the company. She rested her head on him, snuggling up a bit. "Thanks. You're a lot warmer than me." She had thought he didn't like snuggling. _Is he jealous of Keroro or something? Is he missing attention?_ She smiled a bit to herself. That was cute.

"I'm only doing it so you won't go up to Keroro for body warmth. That would be vomit inducing, seeing you two snuggle. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu looked annoyed, but he wrapped his arm around Mois's shoulder, feeling better having her around.

"Are you bothered by how I'm acting towards Keroro?" Mois asked, curiously. Kululu seemed like he wasn't the most pleased with her affection towards Keroro, but she didn't know why. Was it because Kululu was possessive or just because he wanted her to be paying attention to him.

"You and him are bonding over a world and talking about something I will never know. I have no interest in human things." Kululu admitted. "But the way you listen and talk about it so excitedly, so passionately, it makes me wonder if there's more to humans than I thought. I've only killed them to relieve my boredom. I never looked into their culture."

Mois listened to Kululu's soft confession. So he felt left out! That made sense. "So...You never wondered what it was like to be human? To not have the responsibilities and follow the rules of the fae? You never wanted to be human?" She asked him, feeling like perhaps he was so sleepy that he could be honest. So done and desperate for her to talk to him over Keroro, that he'd speak to her like an equal.

"Never. And admittedly I still don't want to be part of the human world. Ku, ku, ku. It's not as cool as the fae world. But Keroro...He's human and he's just like you. Dumb, naive, foolish." Kululu used mostly insults to describe humanity. "I mean, he's exactly what you would want to travel with. There's no reason you shouldn't get along with him and-"

"You feel left out." Mois deciphered. She smiled to herself. So her company did matter to Kululu! He just didn't like expressing that it mattered.

"He's not perfect. Far from it. Keroro's actually a stupid dork. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu explained, "But he's perfect for you. Maybe if you hadn't wandered off and freed me you would have found him much sooner."

"Ah, so it's more than feeling left out! You're jealous." Mois teased.

"Am not. I'm just saying, he's annoying." Kululu sighed. He was jealous. He just didn't even want to admit that to himself.

Mois kissed him on the cheek. "I much prefer you being jealous of me leaving you for a human over trying to con me into being imprisoned in this kingdom, you know, Kululu."

"I'm not jealous." Kululu denied. He didn't like the way Mois was stating it so clearly. If he couldn't deal with her leaving him for a human, he wouldn't be able to deal with him giving her up to the red queen.

If he cared about her, wanted her to stay with him, he should be begging for her to leave with Keroro so that he couldn't hurt her. But no, he was a selfish fae and wanted her all for himself.

Mois pulled herself, taking his arm off of her. She instead moved to straddle his lap so she could get a better look at his face.

The feeling of Mois sitting on top of him was both incredibly alluring and desirable and incredibly embarrassing. It was a conflicting feeling. _If she had done this a few weeks ago when I had first met her, I would have been more than happy to probably tease her into something a lot more sexual than this._ He would have probably started making out with her or something, grinding against her slowly. But even the thought of that now was just too much. Not that the idea wasn't a good one.

What had changed? Had he just got to know Mois better? Why were things so weird about her putting her hands on his cheeks and staring at him. What made him feel like he, a fae, was blushing, and wanted her desperately to keep doing whatever she was doing. For him to hand over the keys to his body and let her do whatever she wanted?

"You're jealous." She accused again, now looking at him. "You want me to chat with you like that and joke with you."

"You already do that." Kululu said quietly. After all she was joking right now. She had a very easy-going easy to get along with personality. She meshed with him.

Right now Keroro was the farthest thing from his mind, not when she was on his lap and he desperately wanted to do things that he would probably initiate if Keroro wasn't coming back at any moment.

"Oh I bet you also want me to think your impressive and cool, right! Do you want to be all heroic, like Keroro?" Mois asked.

"He's not heroic. He literally saved you from a puddle of mud that you might of stepped on, telling you to move away and then trying to do a crime investigation on it. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu reminded.

"But still, you want me to be impressed with you, don't you?" Mois asked.

"I want you to do a lot of things with me." Kululu said slowly.

"Um...What?" Mois looked puzzled at that statement. She was teasing him but she wasn't sure if Kululu was in the same conversation that she had started. She wasn't sure how his mind had flown to a different topic or conversation over his jealousy, but she suspected it had something to do with the fact that she was straddling his lap and Kululu's hand was resting on the crook of her back.

It probably also had a little to do with the fact that she could obviously feel that he had a boner. But she tried to shake that out of her mind. She didn't need anything risky happening right before Keroro would come back to their campsite.

"So...Hypothetically speaking, if I were jealous, what would you do to me?" Kululu asked. She could feel his other hand crawling up the side of her shirt, as if to tug it downwards. His face was also moving a bit forward towards her shoulder.

"...What do you mean what would I do to you?" Mois asked. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know exactly what he meant. Her body was becoming hot as he tenderly kissed her shoulder. "Kululu, you can't get energy from there!" She reminded him.

"What makes you think I'm after energy?" Kululu asked, his hands moving to her waist, now that he had wrangled her shirt downwards more to have more access to her shoulders and collarbone. He moved her slightly into a better position on him, smiling a bit in more sanctification at the revision he had made.

Mois was becoming very red, and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to continue. She knew he was very attractive and that she was very attracted to him, and she liked Kululu as a person, but they couldn't possible do this here and now. There were just too many reasons not to clouding her mind. Still her hands seemed to have a different idea and buried themselves in his hair, running through them and savoring the softness. They pushed him a little bit closer and he accepted the invitation to continue sucking on her neck, moving along and giving soft kisses to the mark on her collarbone with his name.

It made him confident to see it there, and happy.

"W-we...We can't do this right now, Kululu... Keroro will be here any moment. Um...That sort of stuff, this sort of stuff is too naughty, we share energy, not...Not this..." Mois tried to beg.

"Maybe Keroro has managed to stumble off a cliff." Kululu said hopefully, "Anyway I had to listen to you talk to that idiot all day. I feel like I need some reassurance that you much prefer fae over dumb humans." He no longer seemed embarrassed at the aspect that he wanted Mois's attention. In fact his eyes seemed to communicate a desire that wasn't as innocent as his jealousy. "And I didn't hear a 'I don't want to'" Kululu reminded her.

Mois was very happy and pleased that his hands were both on her waist, moving her against him instead of up her skirt. She was sure that he would have been there if he could figure out a way to comfortably. Although the way he was moving her was probably just as bad, giving her a lot of friction between her legs.

She was breathing very heavily and trying not to moan. She tightened the way she was straddling him, which Kululu very much appreciated. She buried her face against his shoulder suppressing a moan. "K-kululu...He'll be here any minute." She didn't deny that she wanted this. She very, very much wanted this.

Maybe she had always wanted this, but right now she was trying to keep reason in her head.

"Hmmm..." Kululu hummed, he didn't know if he really cared. He stroked along her back. Her clothes had started sticking more to her skin, from her sweat. "We better be quick then, shouldn't we, Mois~" He pulled her face off of his shoulder, so he could kiss along her ear. "All I need is for you to tell me what you want."

Mois moaned a little bit louder. She tightened her grip on his shirt, as he quickened his pace of grinding her against him. She knew she was going to lose. She just wished he could kiss her so she could reason that there was some benefit to this besides relieving pure sexual tension. It just felt so embarrassing.

"Well? I'm sorry you're going to have to use your words. Oh, have you lost them? Ku, ku, ku," Kululu teased. He didn't know he was that good. Heck, his lips were the only part of him that was touching her bare skin.

"I can speak!" Mois defended.

"Well? What do you want?" Kululu asked, slowing her hips down. Even with a fae's endurance he knew if he continued like this he'd climax eventually with her on top of him. And that wasn't something he was prepared to go through. He wanted her to agree to it and then he would screw her brains out. If Keroro walked in, he'd blast him to pieces.

"Y...you..." Mois admitted. "I want to continue..." She was ashamed she had admitted that. She had less willpower than she had thought.

Kululu grinned. That was what he wanted to hear. He bucked against her.

And at that very moment Keroro walked through the trees.

"Hey guys!" Keroro waved and smiled.

Mois turned deep red and jumped off Kululu.

Kululu glared with Keroro with intense dislike. He could have had at least waited until he was done. He was so close.

"Whoa, guys are you okay?" Keroro asked looking at them, very concerned. "Mois your clothes are all ruffled, did something attack you? You're both sweating!"

"Yes. I was attacked by the Kululu monster." Mois looked down. Her head was clearing slowly from the sexual daze she had been in.

"What's that?" Keroro asked.

"You wouldn't want to come across it." She shook her head.

Kululu snickered to himself. Although he was very unhappy he hadn't finished, he had come close, which meant eventually he'd get to it again.

Mois was glaring at him, so it didn't sound like it would be soon. She looked like she was saying ' _See! He did come. And it's your fault for seducing me. I wasn't that into that.'_ Some sort of message like that, even though she clearly was.

"So then time for bed?" Kululu asked. If he could get Keroro to sleep, maybe he could still spirit Mois away and...

"Nope camp fire stories! After all, we're a team now!" Keroro grinned. He sat down on a log.

"Ohh I love stories!" Unfortunately Mois liked this idea too.

Kululu sighed and sat on the ground. Yeah, he probably wouldn't be able to pry Mois away from Keroro.

"Of course you would like what I suggested." Keroro grinned, "I can understand why you would have a crush on me."

"A crush on you?" Kululu listened closer. "Excuse me? Ku, ku, ku." He glared at Keroro. Mois did not have a crush on him. _She might though. She could be attracted to you and like Keroro._ Still he was mad at even the implication that Mois liked him.

"After all I am a celebrity!" Keroro declared, "At least in the human world."

"A celebrity?" Mois blushed. She was blushing from the knowledge that Keroro was a celebrity but it looked like she was blushing because she liked Keroro. _I didn't know he was a celebrity._

Kululu grumbled to himself. He no longer had much of a problem now though. It was kind of a major turn-off to learn she had a crush on Keroro.

"I'm the most amazing wizard in the human world. Ever heard of Keroro the wandering wizard? That's me!" Keroro proclaimed.

Mois covered her mouth. She hadn't ever heard of him, but she didn't want to say that.

"In fact, I've gone on tons of wizardry adventures. Five hundred years ago I stumbled upon the fountain of youth and was granted eternal youth! Mostly spent the years collecting toys though..." Keroro frowned, "But we'll ignore that!" He slapped his knee.

Kululu's eyes widened. So this was the same Keroro who had cursed him! He should have known that somehow Keroro was lucky enough to come across the fountain of youth.

"I'm going to kill you." Kululu hissed. All of this, every bad thing that had happened to him was Keroro's fault.

He thanked himself that he had drained power out of Mois while kissing her, just in case Keroro walked in.

Dark bloody vines sprouted from the ground and a wave of dark magic sliced at Keroro, which he limboed below.

"Whoa!" Keroro demolished the vines with his magic.

"It's your fault I can't use my powers or invent anymore unless I'm with her! Ku!" Kululu accused.

Keroro dodged him and pointed to him, chains appearing on Kululu's legs making him stumble to the ground.

Mois darted to Kululu's side. "What's going on?"

"He's the one who cursed me!" Kululu pointed to Keroro.

Keroro sweated. He couldn't actually remember Kululu. He thought for a moment, thinking very hard.

"Ku, ku, ku! I can't wait to finally kill you!" Kululu tried to get free, pulling Mois towards him and kissing her but not in the sweet way like usual. His kiss was filled for the desire for revenge.

"Ah! I know you! I think I finally remember you!" Keroro smiled, "You're that high lord from the night court." He laughed "Ah yeah, I remember cursing you, hahaah, that was so funny wasn't it?"

"Kululu's been struggling because of it!" Mois yelled, angry at Keroro too. But Keroro was just laughing and laughing.

Kululu broke his chains and sent dark sword like things at Keroro's face. Keroro dodged out of luck again and started sending sparks at Kululu.

Their magic kept clashing, Kululu pulling Mois towards him so that he could use her to get more power.

"Stop!" Mois yelled at both of them, "Don't fight!" She tried to get between them, to stop them.

Once she was in their line of fire, Kululu calmed himself. "Get out of the way." He ordered her, "I deserve to kill him." He kept a level-head so she couldn't get caught in the cross-fire.

However Keroro did not. He cared more about his life than Mois. He blasted Magic again, trying to avoid Mois, but nicking her leg in the process.

Kululu dodged, but Mois screamed. Kululu caught her in his arms and glared at Keroro.

"Stop. She's a human just like you! She's weak. Don't get her caught in the cross fire." He glared at him. Kululu looked at Mois. She was burned from the fire. "I'll deal with you after her. But you're a monster for hurting her."

Apparently he did care about her safety. He kissed her again, softly, draining the pain out of her and feeling the burning sensation on his body. Soon it was gone. His body could take it better than hers.

"Thanks." Mois smiled at him, stroking his cheek. Kululu gave her a small smile.

At that very moment, the trees around them fell down as fae from all sides surrounded them.

"This was where the very large display of magic was." They said.

Keroro looked sheepish.

Kululu pulled Mois closer to himself. He wouldn't let her go. His hand was shaking. He knew those fae. "Night court." He whispered, "How did we end up in their territory?"

"Night court took over the fall court after they collapsed." The other fae answered, "Demon. It's been a while." They hissed.

"You should call me your lord." Kululu hissed back. Mois tried to get free to help him, but he wouldn't let her. He didn't want her to leave his side.

He didn't want them separated again like in the winter court.

"I guess someone finally freed scum like you." The fae answered, "Well, we'll bring you to our new high lord. Our master. He'll know what to do with you since we can't kill you. We're incapable of harming you since you're a high lord and we're just foot soldiers."

A different fae shot a bolt of lightning. "We can of course, knock you out though."

Kululu collapsed, along with Mois. And all he could hope for was that Keroro would be killed in the crossfire. _Please let him die._ He begged even though he knew he had more pressing concerns.

* * *

Mois woke up on at hearing Kululu's voice, yelling her name. "Mois!"

She stirred awake, her tiny body in his arms. Kululu looked for a moment relieved but he quickly hid his relief.

She looked around. They were in some sort of cell that was much more comfortable looking than the winter court.

Keroro was lazing around on a long-side long sofa.

"The night court had fancy cells. So that the prisoners could have one last joy before they died. Painfully." Kululu explained, "Ku, ku, ku."

So they had been brought to the night court after being knocked out. Mois rubbed her head. "What will happen to us?"

"Don't know what will happen to you two. But likely I'll be imprisoned again." Kululu explained.

"Imprisoned? What did you do? Did they imprison you for being a jerk?" Keroro asked. Kululu ignored him. He had hoped that Keroro could have died, but he hadn't.

There was a knock on their cell door, and a short human boy, turned the key of the door and walked in with a meal. He had tame red hair, and despite his shortness his skin was actually rather flawless for a human. He looked proper in a small little navy uniform, his eyes sweet and black.

He dropped the plate of food as soon as he saw the prisoners.

"I know, I know, it's me." Kululu waved his hand, "Ku, ku, ku. You're probably horrified to see me again. Scared?"

Mois looked confused. Why was a human in the night court? And someone so cute and small?

He ran past Kululu making sure to punch him in the face as he passed.

"Ow!" Kululu groaned.

Instead the boy threw his arms around Keroro to Keroro's surprise. "My wizard has come for me! I knew you'd be back, Mr. Keroro!" He smiled spinning around Keroro.

He was strong enough to lift a grown man.

Keroro laughed for a minute. "It's nice to see you too, Tamama." He smiled.

"Oh, so you remember his name and not mine?" Kululu growled. Still in pain. "Wait...When the heck did you two become acquainted?"

"When I was your prisoner, Tamama was the one in charge of taking care of the prisoners and treating them like guests. That's when we met." Keroro explained.

"Yep! And while he was here last he helped use his magic to free me from the night court! The food you tricked me into eating to be imprisoned here he used magic to free me and make me immune to eating fae food." Tamama smiled. "So now I'm free of the night court and my own person!"

"So...Then why are you still here?" Mois asked confused. And why hadn't he aged in five hundred years?

"Be quiet. Nobody cares about you." Tamama snapped and glared. "Uh..." He laughed, "It's cuz after Kululu left I realized I had no job and I thought why not stay!" He laughed awkwardly, "Employment is hard. But at least I'm here willingly instead of a prisoner. Mr. Keroro saved me!"

"Yep. It's all in the job." Keroro winked and smiled. "Amazing wizard. Right here."

"Wait...Why did you remember his name and not mine?" Kululu seemed offended, "You didn't remember who I was at all!"

"Simple, he's cuter than you are." Keroro frowned.

"He's a human!" Kululu pointed out, shocked. Who the heck chose a human over a handsome fae?

"A human with a fab butt." Tamama boasted. "Mr. Keroro knows what's up." He smiled at him, "I also stayed here because well...I knew you'd come back eventually..." He whispered. He leaned up as if to kiss him.

Mois and Kululu looked at each other. Were Tamama and Keroro a thing?

 _I didn't know Keroro was gay..._ Mois realized.

Kululu was just grinning trying not to laugh.

Keroro side-stepped Tamama instead, not noticing that he was about to kiss him. "I'm sorry, Mois." He approached Mois instead. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Tamama looked between them. "Wait...Did this broad steal my man while I was away?" He saw something going on. "What a dumb looking human woman." He pulled at her arm.

Kululu wouldn't let go of her other arm, so Tamama wasn't able to pull her far.

"But you're human too!" Mois pointed out, "And...If you're human, how come you knew Kululu five hundred years ago. I thought humans had a 70 year lifespan!"

Tamama looked smug. "I'm not full human. I'm 1/4th demon. On my mother's side." He boasted. "Mostly human, but the demon blood slows my aging process considerable. And makes me physically stronger than a dumb human like you."

Kululu sighed as Mois looked at him curiously.

"We're cousins..." He rubbed his head, embarrassed. "Well, distantly. I guess my demon grandfather was a bit of a playboy." He was quiet. "He's the only relative I was able to track down with demon blood. I brought him into my court for company but he quickly bore me. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois nodded. That sounded like Kululu. Desperately seeking company but then getting bored by it.

"You imprisoned me! You didn't give me a choice of where I wanted to be and never treated me like family." Tamama accused. "You treated me like I was a prisoner, ordering me to do stupid things just to amuse you. I hate you more than anything."

Kululu glared at Tamama.

"So what will become of us, Tamama?" Keroro asked. "Last time I was here there was a law that all humans had to die. Is that still in effect."

Tamama shook his head. "Since you freed me, I've arranged for you to be an honored guest." He looked up at Keroro like Keroro was the best thing in the world.

Keroro did a fist pump. "Yes! That's great."

"What about me?" Kululu asked. "Ku, ku, ku. No honored guest status for me and Mois?"

"They couldn't pry the human broad out of your hands so I don't know about her." Tamama shrugged, "But you...I don't know." He looked at Kululu almost sad. "It hasn't been the same without you, you know, Kululu. The new high lord, the one who elected himself in your absence, he pays well, but...He's gone mad with power. He destroyed the fall court and took over. He's hurt so many fae who have crossed his path. I'm...I'm..." Tamama shivered, "Scared. He's evil. Worse than you. He's just hungry for power. And when he doesn't get it, he gets bad."

Kululu nodded. "I've heard people who weren't meant for power go mad with it. The fae status weren't meant for the lower class. It warps their mind and they lose themselves. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois looked concerned. "Has he hurt you, Tamama?" She knew Kululu was the high lord of the night court. That had been mentioned a few times but Kululu had never told her directly. Still it was shocking news.

Tamama shook his head. "Because all the fae courts have been fighting and fae have been dying the discrimination against demons has gotten less bad. Although some fae still fear me, isolating me for being different I stayed because I knew I'd see Mr. Keroro again." He tried to move forward to snuggle up to Keroro.

 _Ah yes, that hatred against demons again._ Mois realized. She knew humans thought demons were the true evil, and that fae thought their blood was a toxic poison. She herself had no negative thoughts towards demons or any thoughts at all. She glanced at Kululu, she wondered if despite being high lord Kululu had faced a lot of discrimination against himself and had been treated differently.

She wondered if that was how he had become like he had.

She also moved closer, hugging him to his surprise. Embarrassed of this happening in front of Tamama, he lightly pushed her off.

"Whore." Tamama whispered, "So you're whoring yourself out to Kululu and trying to get in good with my man." He hissed, "Whore, whore, whore."

Kululu glared at him. "Hey. Don't insult Mois. Or else when I take over again, you'll be in a lot of trouble. Ku, ku, ku."

He kissed her on the back of the neck. "She belongs to me." He hissed at Tamama.

Mois blushed. It was so awkward when Kululu introduced her like that.

"Well, overall I don't know what will happen to you, Kululu." Tamama glared at both of them. "You might not be killed but definitely tortured. But I can't promise that your human pet will live." He glanced at Mois.

"Sorry!" Keroro apologized. Tamama pulled him towards the door.

"You're not going to help?" Mois asked Keroro. "But aren't you super heroic?" She remembered Keroro's tall tales.

"Uhhh...Well, I'm no good at politics. You and Kululu will have to sort things out yourselves." Keroro nodded.

Tamama pulled at his hand and pouted at him.

"I have to go. I have...Things to do. Important things. Yep. Definitely." Keroro glanced at Tamama. "Bye guys!"

They rushed off in a hurry to freedom before Kululu could catch them and get Tamama to free him too.

"I can't believe they left us to go screw." Kululu sighed. "Ku, ku, ku. When I die I will try to not imagine Keroro's disgusting naked body."

"What now?" Mois asked, at least Kululu was joking about things. Maybe he was less scared.

"We try to figure out a way out of here." Kululu answered.

* * *

They couldn't. And by the time they heard more foot-steps approaching, Kululu insisted that Mois sit in his lap, so he could negotiate with whoever approached them while keeping Mois safe and being able to draw out her energy when necessary.

Although feeling awkward, Mois sat in Kululu's laps as he draped an arm around her stomach and sat in the chair in front of the bars. Waiting for whatever terrible person was to come.

A fae stepped in front of the bars. His hair white and slightly long, down to his neck at least. A pitch black crown sat on the top of his head and his eyes were icy blue. His skin was perfect, his body was the most shapely and sculpted that a male fae could be.

His clothes were that of a prince's. Firm, proper, dark blue. In terms of unbiased attractiveness he was more attractive by far than Kululu, more beautiful, more handsome. Even better looking than Dororo.

He was perfect, his smile was sly but had an air of friendly trickery.

"Kululu." He said quietly.

"Saburo." Kululu said dryly. "I knew it would be you." He didn't laugh. He just glared at the fae in front of him.

"You will call me high lord. My lord will also suffice." Saburo said coldly.

"We both know that high lord's can't be elected. I'm the high lord, not you. You'll never have the true power." Kululu glared.

Saburo didn't even seem to look at Mois as Mois watched him confused. Kululu's voice seemed to carry more hatred than he had when even talking to Keroro. It was cold, but more than anything it sounded as if there was emotion in it. Like Kululu was trying to fight back tears.

Saburo spat at the ground. "You're lucky you're a demon. You aren't like us fae. You weren't meant to be. You're a monster."

Kululu was quiet.

"I don't know how to kill a demon. Normal fae can be killed by being run through the heart. But you-I don't even know if you have a heart." Saburo laughed. "You should never have existed."

"Careful Saburo," Kululu warned. "Try to be too much of a jerk and you might actually hurt me. But don't worry, you aren't very close. You're insults are rather bland and tasteless. Like I haven't heard that one before." Kululu rolled his eyes.

Mois wanted to speak. To say something, but she knew now was the time to be quiet. If she opened her mouth, Kululu would jolt forward telling her to be quiet. He held onto her tighter, as if he needed her close just for her support.

Saburo summoned a lightning sort of rod in his hand.

"You're different than I remember." Kululu said quietly. "Well not different from when you imprisoned me. But...You should never have taken my power. My position. Power warps those not meant for it, changing them into a monster themselves. And you...You were never meant to be high lord of the night court." He looked at Saburo almost sadly, as if he realized this wasn't the true him.

"Be silent-" Saburo threw his lightning rod towards them and Kululu pulled Mois into a kiss and quickly threw up a giant dark shield.

Saburo smiled as he saw Mois as if finally noticing the human in his presence. "Ah, so that's how you escaped. You were so desperate to leave that you finally set up a contract with someone."

"H-hello." Mois said awkwardly waving a bit.

"And a human at that! The same species that you tortured and killed for no other reason besides 'it was fun!'" Saburo laughed like this was gold.

Kululu glared. "What? What's so funny about that?"

Suddenly Mois wasn't in his clutches. Saburo had snapped his fingers and with his power he had teleported her away into his grasp.

Mois stepped on Saburo's foot with all her strength, but it did barely anything to him besides annoying him.

"What a pretty little human pet you've found yourself." Saburo smiled wickedly, "Ever heard of karma, Kululu?"

"Nope, never." Kululu shook his head. He tried to get to Mois but knew he was powerless without her. The bars were too strong.

"This human will die and be tortured in the same way you've hurt so many humans. And you'll watch. For once you won't want it to happen, but it will. And that's what karma is." Saburo laughed.

He didn't even apologize to Mois. To him she was just Kululu's pet as he dragged her away.

Kululu yelled after him, threatening him and cursing loudly, but Saburo didn't hear.

He had decided Mois would die violently. And so she would.

Mois's life was dwindling.

"I'll be fine! Just get out of there! Escape! You're the one in danger!" She yelled into the empty hallway, hoping Kululu would hear her.

She didn't know if Kululu heard her. But she could hope. Kululu was right that the night court was not someplace she should have wanted to go.

She just hoped he would find a way to escape before anyone could hurt him.

* * *

 **New characters include Keroro, Tamama and Saburo.**

 **Keroro- Human wizard.**

 **Tamaam-Human in the night court, 1/4th demon.**

 **Saburo-Old friend of Kululu's. New High lord of the night court.**

 **Please review!**


	6. Iron Gaze

**I should be studying but instead I wrote this chapter.**

 **Four more chapters left. This chapter ends the Saburo threat.**

* * *

Saburo's grip was strong around Mois's wrist as she was dragged away. Every time she tried to move his grip became firmer and more icy.

As he led her down the darkly lit castle dungeon and up the stairs throughout the large castle, she began to lose her way, forgetting where she had come from. Fae castles were much larger than human ones. This one resembled in size a town.

Mois grunted and screamed trying to scream for the first hour, but eventually she became silent. When twenty minutes had passed of her silence, Saburo spoke.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly, looking at the ground.

Mois looked up at the white haired fae. He hadn't spoken much as he had dragged her away, seeing her as more of a thing than a person. But an apology was the last thing she had expected to hear from him.

 _He sounds genuine too._ Mois realized. His apology sounded sad, almost in a whisper. "What?" She asked wondering if she had heard Saburo correctly.

"I'm sorry for having to kill you just because you're Kululu's pet." Saburo clarified. "You don't deserve to be tortured, but that's the way things are going to have to go. So I thought I might as well apologize."

Mois tried to struggle again, but her body froze against Saburo's partner. "I'm not Kululu's pet!" She denied strongly. Sure perhaps it looked like that, all Saburo had seen of her was her sitting in Kululu's lap and kissing him. But she was more than that. They only had to kiss because of the circumstances. _I'm Kululu's friend. Not his pet._

Saburo glanced at her. His gaze seemed to be looking into her soul and his grip loosened a moment. He could see that her beliefs were strong- she truly didn't consider herself Kululu's human pet despite the fact that Kululu was the previous high lord of a fae kingdom. "What do you consider yourself then? Have you fallen for him? He was a fae lord. So I can understand a normal little human like yourself falling under his spell. But I have to warn you, you don't know the Kululu I know."

Mois tried to tug herself away briefly. _Have I fallen for him?_ She rephrased the question in her head. She knew a few times Kululu and her had gotten physical without needing to. She also knew that she valued Kululu's friendship and liked seeing how he saw the world. It was so different than the way she saw things. But Saburo was right that she didn't know the same Kululu she did. Even though the fae in front of her was going mad with power, his words seemed to be trying to be calm and composed.

Kululu himself had admitted he had tortured humans just for fun. But still she trusted him. _I...I don't know._ She thought to herself, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. She knew she couldn't be in love with Kululu, no she shouldn't. Too many things stood in their way of being together, of being happy. But it was still true that he was very special to her. He was important to her and had a special place in her heart, despite how untrusting and distant he was. "He's my friend."

Saburo's lips drew into a mocking smirk. "Kululu? A friend of a human's? I don't believe it." He laughed for a moment. "You didn't see the way he treated humans back in the day. Do you know what he did to them?"

"Tortured and killed them just for fun." Mois recited slowly, "To alleviate his boredom."

"What stops him from doing the same to you? Is it because he's seeping off power from you?" Saburo asked curiously as if he didn't believe it. "I don't believe it. Someday, Kululu will grow bored of you and despite the physical attention that you give him you'll die at his hands. And it will mean nothing to him."

Mois didn't reply to Saburo. She kept silent.

Saburo's hand dropped off of her wrist to her surprise. His gaze was soft, as if he was grieving for the poor human who believed she was someone as twisted as Kululu's friend.

Mois rubbed her wrist. _Should I run? But I don't know where to go._ She realized. She knew Saburo had let go of her hand for a reason.

Saburo reached out his hand gently, as if offering it to Mois. His palm was up, waiting for Mois to take it.

"Let me give you an offer, Miss." Saburo spoke up.

 _He doesn't call me little human, like Kululu did when he first met me._ Mois smiled for a moment. Kululu's voice had been insulting when he called her like that, but she still felt odd if someone else used that name. It was a special name just for Kululu. _Instead he's trying to be respectful._ Mois noted.

She could draw her own conclusions as to why. Saburo hated Kululu and he knew about Kululu's curse and that to get out of his chains he must have bonded to Mois. Saburo must know that Mois was important to Kululu.

"I won't torture you. I won't kill you, if you come to my side. You can be on the side of a fae high lord like myself. Just come to me." Saburo bent down on one knee, as if offering his companionship to her.

"Why?" Mois asked. "Why do you want me by your side?"

"You seem like a smart girl." Saburo got up, "You must know it's not because your human charms lure me. It's because of Kululu. You being mine...Well, it would show him that just another thing of his become mine over his. Basically it would tick him off." Saburo was honest.

Mois could see the sides of his lips twitching nervously. _He's trying to be calm and composed around me, respectful._ She realized. _But he was never meant for the position of high lord. His new powers are turning him mad and he can't shake off the insanity to be kind for long. He'll become cruel in seconds._ Mois realized.

She briefly wondered what the real Saburo had been like. Was that the one who imprisoned Kululu? Or was it this new Saburo who was mad with power?

She didn't know.

"How can a fae like you be a high lord?" Mois changed the subject. "Aren't you from a lower class? Isn't the power of a high lord only meant for someone born into the position of high lord or married into it?" Mois recalled Momoka speaking about going mad with the power of a high lord and the rules of a fae. "And wasn't Kululu the original high lord?"

Saburo growled for a moment at the question. He looked like he would strike Mois, but instead he ran his fingers through his hair, composing himself.

"Ah, I see...You're asking this because you're worried I'll hurt you if you take my offer. Or that I betrayed Kululu." Saburo laughed to himself.

Mois frowned for a moment. _Kululu was always bitter about betrayals. Very untrusting. It must have been because of Saburo._ She realized.

Saburo took her arm. Just above the elbow. It was less than gentle. "I'll show you something, Miss." He dragged her towards a room and pulled a little black key out of his pocket.

Mois let him drag her, wondering what he was going to show her. Once Saburo opened the door, she saw all sorts of trophies in the bluely illuminated room.

"The memorable room." Saburo explained to her. "It's for memories." He led her to the front of the room and pulled a picture frame off the wall. He then handed it to her.

Despite Mois's better judgment she took it and looked at it. It was a picture of Kululu, he was in fancier clothes, because of fae's ages he didn't look any younger, but he looked honestly happy.

His arms were draped around Saburo who was smiling too. They both looked peaceful, it was simpler times.

"Were you married?" Mois asked surprised.

Saburo laughed. "Heck no! We were best friends. I was his second in command when he was high lord." He looked like he was honestly shocked by the implication that Kululu and he had been married. His laugh was low, and honest like it was the weirdest thing he had ever heard.

Saburo gently took the picture out of her hands. His voice became a bit colder this time. "Although there's a belief that fae can not change their status, it is not true. I took over and I'm fine. Probably because I was always meant for this job." His eyes glinted.

Mois knew that wasn't true. He was lying to himself and to her. He might not have known he was going mad and wasn't the person he once was.

She tried not to hate him. It might not have been his fault what he did to Kululu. She put her hand gently on Saburo's shoulder.

Saburo glanced at her strangely. Perhaps it was the first time he had ever seen a human dare to put her hand on a high lord. He gently stroked her hand.

 _Maybe I can calm him. Talk to him like he's a normal person and see if there's any hope to bring him back to himself. For Kululu's sake. Maybe I can convince him to give the status of high lord back to Kululu._ Mois thought to herself.

This day didn't need to end with bloodshed.

"You know...I don't honestly hate humans." Saburo spoke quietly, "That's why I gave you the offer to live. I don't want you to die."

Mois stroked his back, trying to be understanding. "Thank you." She told him politely. Although not killing her really wasn't something to write home about.

She looked back at the picture of happier times between him and Kululu. "Were...Were you the one who chained Kululu down?" She asked curiously. "That's where he and I met as you must know."

Saburo was quiet for a moment as if he was deciding whether to talk to her. As if his mind and power couldn't decide whether to feed her information. "I was." He admitted.

"W-why...? Weren't you two best friends as you said?" Mois tried to keep emotion out of her voice. To try to be understanding. But the emotion and shock crept through.

Saburo didn't seem to notice. He was calming down with her hand on his shoulder. His eyes became nostalgic at the memories. "You don't understand. I had to. I never...I never wanted anyone hurt." His eyes started welling with tears. "He might have been my best friend but he was evil. Cruel. The worst person anyone had ever met. He killed so many humans for no reason. Forced us all to watch them being tortured. I might have been a mischievous fae enjoying pranks, being a bit of a jerk, but more than anything I loved peace." Saburo was quiet.

"After thousands of years it was too much for me, watching him do those things to innocent people, just like you." He closed his eyes as if he could still see the bloodshed Kululu caused, "So I began scheming against him. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do...He was my best friend but I didn't want anymore humans to die at his hands. I wanted to free the people, the humans. And I chose innocent lives over him."

Mois could hear that Saburo's words were honest. He had just wanted what was best for the kingdom. For humans. _So...Kululu really was the villain._ She thought to herself. Saburo was the one who had been in the right. And only after he had taken the power of the high lord so Kululu wouldn't have it had he become cruel. _Am I helping the right person?_ She thought briefly to herself. Saburo clearly wasn't lying, and Kululu had admitted that he had done those things, so he had deserved what had come to him. But at the same time, her heart was with Kululu. And she knew that it must have hurt to be betrayed by his friend.

She waited for Saburo to tell her more. He looked like he was shaking as if he was slowly becoming more of himself.

"I knew that after Kululu was cursed he wasn't strong enough to defeat a coupe. And that was when I decided to strike. I had to take him out of power so he wouldn't hurt anyone." Saburo sounded determined as if he was still in the original moment, "My original plan was not to hurt him. I was going to put him to sleep...Until he could wake up and learn to be a better person. I wanted him to be better..."

"Why didn't you put him to sleep?" Mois wondered. _It must have been because of the coupe. The moment he took the high lord status and power for himself he stopped thinking about peace and only started thinking about power. If only I could get him to become the peace loving fae he used to be..._

Saburo thought for a moment, as if trying to remember. But the madness of power seeped into his brain. He slapped Mois's hand off his shoulder and looked at her, his expression now cruel, as if he didn't care about talking to her.

She was a thing again and not one of the humans he desired to protect.

"I didn't want to risk him rising to power again. So I locked him up." Saburo said coldly. "He deserved it. And soon enough I realized how much I loved being the high lord of the night court. And now I hate him, because he might try to take back what I have earned. This power." Saburo smirked.

Mois looked at him, trying to get him to think more. She knew looking at Kululu would have gotten some sort of answer from him. But she got no response from Saburo.

It wasn't the same thing.

"Just like a drug, power is what I want more than anything." Saburo smiled, "And with you by my side, I could get it."

"Me?" Mois asked surprised.

"Well, you wouldn't do much. You don't have power. But I do want your aid. I want you to help me." Saburo smiled, "I'm going to conquer the other kingdoms." He proclaimed.

Mois's eyes widened. She recalled Dororo- the last survivor of the spring court. The winter court that didn't deserve to be conquered. "H-how?" She stuttered. Saburo was powerful, and he might be able to beat Momoka and Fuyuki since they originally were humans but she doubted he could take on the real high lord of the summer court.

"With the aid of the red queen." Saburo smiled.

Mois's eyes widened with more shock.

"She is my ally." Saburo grinned. "And you could also be my ally. Aid me." He ordered as if expecting Mois to take his hand.

Mois was still in shock. _He's met the red queen? But...If the red queen's given her aid that means he's much more powerful than I originally believed. Can Kululu take him on if he tries to escape? No...He'd be destroyed especially with his handicap._ The red queen was ruler of all the fae and that made her the most powerful. With her aid, Saburo was much more of a threat.

Saburo saw her shock, her silence. He smiled to himself. His face got closer. His breath was on her ear now. "You know, you might not have any power that anyone except Kululu can use...But your kisses can power him. I wonder if I would get anything out of kissing a human like you. Could I take more energy from you? Become stronger than I was before?" Saburo's voice sounded excited at the aspect of getting stronger. "Let's see if a kiss from Kululu's human pet can do anything." He no longer saw Mois as 'Miss' she was Kululu's human pet again.

He leaned in to kiss her.

 _No! I don't want to kiss you! Get away from me!_ Mois thought to herself. Nobody could help her though, she was alone. Panic started rising in her throat and as a gut reflex, Mois kicked the high lord fae in the gut. And she did it as hard as she could.

"OW!" Saburo fell over a bit, and rubbed his abdomen. He laughed for a moment as Mois drew back fearfully. "I'm sure that's the first time a human has tried to injure a high lord. Almost funny in a way."

Mois turned away and started to run. His hands were no longer on her and if she tried to run as fast as she could maybe she could outrun him. Even though this was his castle and he knew where everything was.

Perhaps she could hide. There was no hope for Saburo becoming himself again if he had allied himself with the red queen.

"Offer retracted. Since you were so brave, I'll give you the honor of being destroyed. You will be tortured." Saburo declared. He started slowly following her as she ran. "You can't run, but try to hide...I love hide and seek."

And running and hiding she did. She had to find Kululu. Before it was too late.

* * *

 _I can't invent anything without Mois._ Kululu felt bitter as he locked around his chamber. He could see many pieces of things that he could piece together to escape. But he knew from experience his hands would freeze when he tried to put them together.

He tried desperately to figure out how to escape his cage. He had to get to Mois before Saburo killed her. He knew it would happen in front of him, but he just... _I have to make it up to her. Every awful thing I've done. I won't let her die._

He felt the burning passion and desperation in his heart, maybe he could get through this curse. Try nonetheless. He picked up a few pieces of things he knew would make some sort of raygun that would melt the bars in front of him.

Closing his eyes, he tried to piece the pieces together.

 _Click._ He heard as the pieces fell together as he desperately twirled them around. He looked down at his working raygun.

 _H-how...?_ He wondered. Without Mois's kisses, he should be useless unable to make anything. He wondered if he should try to make something else, if he was able to now invent without Mois's help.

 _Is this because I encountered Keroro? Is the curse now wearing off since I met him?_ Kululu realized that when he found out that Keroro had been the wizard that cursed him that he had forgotten to ask how to stop the curse.

If he was able to get the curse off, there would be no need to visit the red queen and beg her to take it off of him, to sacrifice Mois, although he wondered if he no longer wanted to do that. Seeing Saburo take her had made him realize he didn't want her gone.

Even if he had to kiss her for the rest of his life, that was better than sacrificing her.

Kululu used his ray gun to melt the bars of his jail and slip out. _I'm coming Mois. I won't let you pay for my crimes._

He wondered how he could get to her. He knew he should think with his head -chasing after her and Saburo was meaningless if he was useless. He needed a plan, a smart plan that would let him reclaim Mois. That would get him to beat Saburo even without his power.

 _I got it. I'll start a coupe, same as what he did to me. A lot of the fae in my kingdom are probably unsatisfied with his rule, after all he's going mad with power and becoming crueler, less cunning and probably reckless because he wasn't meant to be high lord. Only an idiot wouldn't want the true high lord back -me. There's no way to make this kingdom into a democracy, it'll always be a monarchy._ "Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed to himself.

It was time to negotiate with a ton of fae. He was sure to find them hiding somewhere. All around his court.

He started walking, in a hurry, away. They'd destroy Saburo once and for all.

* * *

It wasn't too hard to gather most of the fae in the kingdom and convince them that he was better for them than Saburo. Turned out Saburo was driving the kingdom in the ground because of his lust for power.

"Remember. I am your high lord." Kululu reminded, in his cold and commanding voice. The fae nodded, knowing that was the way things were meant to be.

And the plans for the coupe were set in stone. Kululu quickly wrote up directions for the fae and gave them a map of what to do.

Overall, things were going surprisingly well, especially since Kululu could now invent again much to his surprise.

 _I'll destroy Saburo. I won't let him hurt Mois._ Kululu was unaware about Saburo's aid from the red queen. Still, he needed to find Mois. He still didn't have power without her, and he wanted to make sure she was safe.

Bidding his subjects good-bye for now he headed off, looking for Tamama. He needed an ally that might be able to find Mois. And Tamama was the only one he knew very well and could rely on in a pinch.

Finding Tamama's room quickly he knocked on the door. Tamama hurriedly got out, annoyed that someone had bothered him.

"How are you out?" Tamama asked, "And what do you want?" He crossed his arms.

"I'm starting a coupe against Saburo. Ku, ku, ku. I want your help." Kululu admitted.

"I hate you. Why would I help you? You tricked me to be your prisoner." Tamama crossed his arms, glaring at him.

Kululu frowned. "Saburo's driving the night court into the ground with his lust for power. You and I both know I would be better for it. I may be a jerk, but I'm not reckless and stupid like Saburo is." Kululu frowned, "I can even make it worth your while. During my journey with Mois I learned how to make humans into fae. If you're interested I could finally make you one of us, a real fae." Kululu tried to bribe Tamama.

Tamama's eyes lit up. "Fine." He agreed, "What do you need?"

"Where would Saburo take Mois?" Kululu asked.

"Probably the arena that you used to torture humans in." Tamama shrugged, "You should know he'll make an example of her."

Kululu nodded, gave a swift good-bye and turned around to run after her.

Now was the time to start the coupe. He gave the signal.

 _I know humans used to hunt fae for their organs._ Kululu recalled. _Several humans were the ones who got rid of my annoying siblings and parents after all. I know humans are selfish, and evil...But Mois...She's different._

 _I have to protect her. I have to make sure Saburo doesn't hurt her. I can't...I can't bare to lose something else to Saburo. I won't lose her._ Kululu swore.

He picked up his pace. He would find her, no matter what.

* * *

Just like a cat and mouse game, Saburo had lured Mois to where he wanted her to hide. The arena where humans were to be tortured.

She was currently hiding under a few barrels, out of breath from being chased. Hearing footsteps approach, she grabbed a small splinter of wood, about the size of her hand, to attack.

The barrels were scooted away and she lurched forward to stab.

"It's me." Kululu said quickly, grabbing her wrist before she stabbed him. He seemed relieved to see her. "Aim for the heart next time. Stabbing a fae with something like that won't do any good. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois sighed. "Kululu! I'm so glad to see you." She looked into Kululu's eyes desperately as if making sure that the person in front of her was really Kululu and not Saburo using a glamor.

"Fae can't change their eye color in their glamor's. Don't worry. I'm not Saburo." Kululu smiled realizing that she was making sure he was him. _Smart of her._ Kululu smiled.

Mois nodded, her hands shot up to his shoulder blades, as she pulled herself into a hug. Kululu slowly put an arm around her and embraced her for a moment, happy to see she was safe too.

 _Was she scared? Is she okay? I'm surprised she escaped Saburo._ Kululu thought to himself. "Did he do anything to you?" His voice was a hiss, as if honestly concerned for her.

"No. We just talked." Mois shook her head, "He...He did try to kiss me, but don't worry! I kicked him in the gut." Mois smiled.

"Ku, ku, ku! Wish I had been there to see that." Kululu laughed. She was probably the first human to kick a high lord in the gut. He was proud of her, although he was worried about the fact that Saburo had tried to kiss her. He was proud of her for kicking him.

Gently he put his fingers on her chin and tilted her face up. Mois closed her eyes and let him kiss her as he leaned down.

Kululu knew their bond didn't let him take away emotional pain- only physical pain, but he still wanted to kiss her as long as he could. He felt Mois press herself against him desperately as if she wanted to be as in his arms as she could. As close to him.

He kissed her for a few moments, although he was taking energy from her, it wasn't the same as before. The kiss was more like being reunited lover's – less like a parasite.

He pulled away eventually, stroking her hair. "I'm glad you're safe." He told her.

Mois buried her face into his shirt as if she didn't want to stop hugging.

"Listen, Mois...Once Saburo gets here I'm going to fight him. I've started a coupe and I'm going to take him out of power. He won't bother us anymore." Kululu whispered to her.

 _Us? Not me? Not him? Just us...?_ Mois smiled to herself. He was thinking of them more as partners and companions. She was glad. It meant he cared for her, trusted her. She nuzzled up to him as she slowly realized what he was saying.

He was going to fight Saburo.

"You can't!" She said quickly. "Saburo has the aid of the red queen. He's met her. I'm sure he's gotten power from her too, making him stronger. That and you're not at full power..." She tugged at his arms, worriedly.

Kululu didn't want her to be worried for him. He was much stronger than Saburo!

 _Makes sense that he would have the aid of the red queen though. Dororo did say that the night court destroyed the fall court. It must have been on her orders._ Saburo frowned, realizing the red queen was taking down all the courts.

He'd deal with her later. Maybe. There was no longer a reason for him to see her.

Right now only Saburo needed to be a threat.

"I can take him." Kululu said egotistically. "Don't worry about me." He frowned. "I'm going to fight him. I'm not going to run away and let him destroy my court."

With the power of the high lord of the night court, Kululu brought the walls of the arena down that Mois was hiding in.

Saburo was on the other side. He gave a mocking smile. "So you two were together. I don't know how you escaped, Kululu. But maybe now I'll finally be rid of you."

Mois glanced at Kululu worriedly. She wouldn't let go of Kululu, but Kululu pushed her away from him.

"Stay here." He ordered Mois, "I don't want you getting hurt in the blasts." He whispered.

Mois stumbled for a moment, before tripping and falling onto the ground as Kululu walked forward.

 _I can't stop him. I just have to hope that he's able to beat him._ Mois realized. She clasped her hands together as if to utter a prayer.

This was Kululu's battle, his enemy. He deserved to beat him.

Kululu was the first to make a move. "You're going down. I bet you wish you could kill me, but you had your chance five hundred years ago. And instead you decided to lock me up. Ku, ku, ku." He blasted some dark energy at Saburo.

Saburo dodged.

The dark energy seemed to be like acid, burning through the floor and walls.

"You'll regret that. And you'll regret betraying me." Kululu hissed, "I'm going to make you beg for forgiveness."

He blasted at him more. But his blasts weren't cold and calculated. Instead they were erratic and wild.

 _He's bitter. He's still hurt by the betrayal._ Mois realized. _Kululu's fighting based on emotions alone, and his strengths were that he didn't do that. He usually calculated his moved but he's incapable of doing that against Saburo._

She noticed that despite Kululu's anger and bitter hatred, most of his blasts didn't look like they had the intention to kill. A fae like Saburo could survive them.

There was still a part of Kululu's heart that cared about Saburo.

Saburo blasted back, the blasts of magic seemed to clash, darkness and lightning magic, burning most everything in their path.

Eventually Kululu did singe Saburo's collar, causing Saburo to let out a laugh. It wasn't friendly.

"I suppose it's time to stop holding back." He snapped his fingers.

Kululu looked around as if waiting to see what would happen. Soldiers made of iron marched out of open doors. They were lifeless tall dolls.

Kululu's face turned pale. "Fae die if they touch iron." He reminded Saburo, "W-what are you doing with those soldiers?"

"I don't need living allies." Saburo laughed, "I have these. The red queen's own personal army!" Saburo laughed.

Kululu didn't glance at Mois. He knew she had warned him about the red queen. _The thing that makes the red queen ruler of the fae so powerful is her command of iron- the weakness of the rest of us. She can touch it, she can rule it, she can do anything she wants with it. And the rest of us would be killed if she decided to destroy us._ It was the first time he had seen some of the red queen's soldiers that she had lended to Saburo.

And he knew he couldn't take them. "They'll kill you too if they touch you." He reminded.

"Oh these soldiers aren't to take you out. I've had word that the fae in my kingdom are uprising now that you're back. They're to stop your little coupe. I can take you on." Saburo grinned.

The iron soldiers marched backwards, although some of them stayed to guard Saburo.

"Your little pet must have told you about my ally, the red queen." Saburo grinned.

"How'd you find her? Why did you ally yourself with her?" Kululu asked, trying to take a defensive stance.

"She wanted similar things that I wanted. To destroy the fae kingdoms. You must have already heard about the fall and spring courts fall thanks to us." Saburo grinned, "And of course I was able to find her. After all, the red queen rules over the kingdom of light. Opposite of our court."

Kululu tried not to glance at Mois. So she had been right about that. How did he not know about this?

Saburo pulled out a sword off of his belt. He then charged at Kululu ready to attack him again. Kululu's fingers turned into claws thanks to his demon nature, clashing against the sword for a moment.

He quickly dropped to the floor, rolled and grabbed a sword lying on the arena floor.

He and Saburo's swords then clashed again.

Saburo grinned for a moment. "After I defeat you, I'm going to eat you and absorb the last remains of your power."

"You are going mad with your lust for power. Ku, ku, ku. Only a sicko would say something like that." Kululu frowned, trying to hit Saburo away from him or wound him. However none of his hits connected, his eyes darting to the iron soldiers now circling the ring.

Mois stood up, Kululu glared at her.

 _Run!_ His eyes seemed to say. _You might not be able to be killed by iron soldiers, but they'll crush you with their weight._

Saburo slashed at Kululu's wrist. Kululu grunted as blood started dripping out- deep black blood thanks to his demon heritage.

"I hate you, you know." Saburo hissed, "More than anyone else."

Kululu couldn't help but frown as he put his sword in his other hand. Infusing it with magic, he swung it again.

 _I never hated you._ Kululu remembered. He had felt betrayed, but Saburo had been his best friend. He hated looking at the person he had cared so much for. Who had hurt him so much.

Memories, flashes of images started going through Kululu's mind. His and Saburo's laughter when doing a prank, him and Saburo lying down looking at the clouds and talking, so many memories of their friendship.

And Saburo had cast it aside. Kululu knew why he had done it, he had chosen peace and humans over him. He could understand that, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel hurt.

Still, Saburo wasn't the person he used to be. As soon as he had taken Kululu's power he had changed. He no longer resembled Kululu's friend.

 _I need to kill him. Not just for Mois and me, but for Saburo. He wouldn't want to be like this._ Kululu was heartless. He wouldn't cry. But he wanted to. He missed his friend.

He slashed with all his power against Saburo's chest.

"ACK!" Saburo crumpled to the ground. He wasn't yet dead, he was a fae after all. He was stronger than that.

Kululu looked down at his old friend as he held his sword over him, about to plunge it down. Saburo was a pathetic sight to see.

"P-please...D-don't..." Saburo begged, fearfully, "Don't kill me." His voice was a whimper. "We were such good friends. I...I never meant to hurt you."

Kululu pulled his sword down. It glowed with magic.

"Kululu, you'll always be my best friend. Please help me. I don't want to be like this anymore." Saburo whispered.

Kululu stopped a moment before he hit Saburo's body. He froze at the words.

Secretly he had always wanted to hear it, Saburo reassuring him of their friendship. _I was always willing to forgive him. Even after five hundred years of being chained, unable to sit..._ He knew common sense told him not to trust Saburo again, but for a moment he hesitated. He wanted to be able to forgive him.

He trusted Saburo for a minute too long.

Saburo smiled on the ground, and pulled himself up. Pulling out a concealed dagger he stabbed Kululu in the heart.

Kululu fell to the ground, seeing Saburo's mocking smirk.

"You really think I would say that?" Saburo looked at him mockingly, "You're more lonely and pathetic than I thought. I don't want your friendship. I want your power. You lose. You trusted me twice too much." He laughed.

Kululu's putrid black blood coated Saburo's hands.

"Shoot him." Saburo ordered the iron soldiers. All the soldiers circling him started firing iron arrows at his body, some of them hitting as Kululu cried out in repeated pain.

Mois screamed at the sight. More and more blood came out of her friend.

Kululu could feel himself drift away, out of consciousness. His eyes slowly fell, his body weakening. It was the weakest he had ever been.

He didn't even have the strength to keep his wings inside his back, slowly they retracted, light blue dragonfly like things, sparkling in the light.

Saburo moved forward to rip them to shreds, to do the most cruel thing known to fae kind, destroy their wings. Kululu couldn't struggle.

"Run...Please, Mois." He whispered in a strangled gurgle as blood coated even his throat. He looked at her for the last time, before his eyes closed. _Maybe she'd stand a chance against a normal fairy, but not a high lord. She's as good as dead._

Mois covered her mouth as he become unconscious.

"You tricked him! You betrayed him!" Mois accused Saburo.

Saburo looked at her with somewhat interest as he knelled next to the bleeding Kululu, poking at his wings. It was time to take his trophy, as so many humans had done to the fae in the past. The wings were a prized memorable.

"Nobody should betray their friend." Mois frowned.

Saburo glanced at her. _She knows she can run right now, right? I'm too interested in his dead body to chase her._

Saburo stood up to deal with the naive human.

"I've freed you from your keeper." He told her, "Kululu's dead."

Mois's face twisted in grief. Her cheeks became wet with tears. She shook her head as if not believing it.

"There's no more need to torture you or kill you. You're free to go do whatever you want. You're free." Saburo told her. He frowned at her as he saw she wasn't budging from her spot, "However if you attempt to stand against me, kick me like you did, I will punish you and your human village. It's your choice. Freedom or death."

Mois timidly stepped forward. Her legs were shaking, her eyes hadn't gotten off of Kululu. It looked like she wanted to run up to him. To hold him, to kiss him until he had enough energy to wake up.

"N-nobody should ever betray their friend." Her voice had shaken as she spoke but her eyes darted up to Saburo with a fiery determination, and anger as if she thought justice would come to him.

"Oh? So you're going to fight me?" Saburo's smile twisted into a wicked grin. He stepped away from Kululu's body. His shoes were coated in blood. "You're just a food source, you know. You were just a food source to him. You should be thanking me for ending him."

"He trusted you!" Mois accused. "Betrayal is the most sinful act." She growled. She walked closer.

Saburo frowned at her and laughed, "How is a weak little human like you supposed to beat me? All you are is a human. A weak, tiny human who will die meaninglessly." Saburo laughed.

"Don't call me that." Mois hissed.

"What? Little human?" Saburo asked.

Mois was close enough to reach him. She slapped him, hard, as if she didn't realize the boundaries between their two species.

Saburo gasped. She had more courage than he gave her credit for. Or perhaps idiocy. He rubbed his cheek, laughing. "Fine. I'll take your challenge. After all how is a human like you supposed to beat a high lord fae like me?" He took out his sword. He put his hand out to stop his iron soldiers from shooting at her, knowing it might hit him.

"I bet you've never killed someone in your life, little human." Saburo called her that name again, as if to mock her. "You're not as strong as me. You're weak-"

Mois glared at him coldly.

* * *

It only took a few moments before Saburo was lying on the ground, drowning in a pool of his own blood. He looked up at the girl who was now coated in his blood.

She still had the cold expression on her face that she had had when he had mocked her. In her hands was a weapon he had never seen before- an iron spear.

She had used his weakness against him, his weakness to iron and stabbed him in the gut almost immediately. He hadn't seen where she had gotten the spear, perhaps from the floor with the other weapons that the fae used to pit humans against each other in coliseum matches.

But with a cold hatred she had stabbed him in the gut, as if he was nothing to her and so much weaker than she. She had killed him in moments.

And he hadn't predicted it at all.

"Maybe in death you'll become the person you once were, who valued peace and only wanted to save humans." Mois spoke calmly, and wisely. "But right now you are not who you were supposed to be."

Saburo gurgled a response but he was suffocating from the blood. He died.

And the night court was free of the tyrant Saburo.

* * *

Kululu awoke in his bedroom as he looked up at the familiar sight of his ceiling. He felt the softness of his sheets beneath him.

His chambers were a place that had been locked away for five hundred years. They should be untouched, but here he was. His bedroom.

A safe feeling drifted around him. _Was it all a dream?_ He wondered. After all his last memories were how he had almost died. _The curse, being chained for years...Saburo's betrayal, was it all unreal?_ After all what other reason could there be for him being in his room just like things were normal.

He saw a light coming from his bathroom, and the door was open. Mois quickly walked out hearing that he had stirred. All she wore was a small black towel since she had been taking a bath.

Her face lit up with delight once she saw Kululu awake. She threw herself on him, despite how little she was wearing, and hugged him.

"You're alive! I'm so glad!" She squeezed him, and Kululu could feel that his limbs were weak from blood loss, and that most of his clothes had been removed and that he was covered in bandages.

 _Ah. Mois's here. So it wasn't a dream. Then...How am I here? Did I die? Did Mois die too?_ Kululu wondered.

He awkwardly put his arm around the human girl who was now crying all over his bandages. She covered his face in sweet kisses, kissing his cheek and his nose and just giving him as many pecks as she could.

"I was so worried about you! I didn't know if you were going to make it. I...I didn't want you to die. I was so sad...So scared that you wouldn't survive. But I brought you here and treated your wounds and kissed you as much as I possible could hoping that our bond and my energy would bring you back!" Mois sniffled for a moment. "I care about you so much. I...I don't know what I'd do if you were dead."

Kululu could feel himself blushing from her kisses. This was the first time that physical affection from Mois had actually embarrassed him, but she was giving him so many cute kisses and giving him so much attention.

He pushed her off gently, helping her pull her towel up before it fell off. He looked away, trying not to let her see that he was quite embarrassed.

She threw herself back on him, hugging him and kissing him again.

"T-that's enough." Kululu stuttered, "Y-you're...Y-you're making me feel all weird. You're being too cute. I can't survive this when I'm injured."

Mois nodded and pulled herself off of him with immense will power. She smiled at him and covered her smile with her hands, as if to hide it.

"So you dragged me here...Did the coupe work? Did someone kill Saburo? What happened?" Kululu was confused.

Mois nodded, "The iron soldiers turned to ashes once Saburo was defeated. They must have returned to the red queen." She tilted her head. "The night court is yours once again."

Kululu could feel himself grin. Although he did feel unsatisfied that he hadn't been the one who defeated Saburo. "...Who killed Saburo?" Kululu asked. He rubbed his forehead. He would probably have to reward the fae who did it. Or kill them so they didn't get any ideas about trying to become high lord.

"I killed Saburo." Mois said honestly. Her voice was low and a bit of a whisper. "I was just in the bath washing off the blood. It got everywhere. In my hair...On my face..." She shook her head as if killing a high lord was just a normal part of her day.

Kululu's mouth fell open. _She killed him? But he was a high lord! She was a human! She shouldn't be strong enough for that even with her intelligence...How...? How?_

He tried to process this. That Mois had successfully defeated Saburo. It was shocking in a way and although he wanted to be proud of her common sense told him that no average human could kill a fae.

What had she done?

Shock was the only emotion going through him. He had to know how.

* * *

 **Next chapter is mostly just kurumois. Not much adventuring.**


	7. Eternal Ball

**Finals ended. I got a 99% on one! I don't know about the others yet.**

 **Anyway this chapter is mostly fluff and somewhat smut.**

 **Three more chapters left!**

* * *

 _How could she do it?_ Things didn't seem real as Kululu vaguely wandered around the night court as if he himself were lost.

All of it belonged to him, but things were not left in the same places that he remembered it. The secrets, the intrigue of the fairy court and the power that ran through it like life blood was all his.

But after five hundred years, things didn't seem quite right. It seemed like a dream to be back there, wandering around, adjourned in fancy robes and having fae waiting on his every demand.

Everyone seemed happy to see him, knowing that he was much better than their previous ruler Saburo. They would greet him with polite bows and show him various sculpted masterpieces and do exactly as he ordered to make the night court as great as it once was.

Although Kululu was quite pleased with being back in his own home- and ruler of it, like he rightfully was supposed to, his mind always wandered back to Mois.

She had killed the fae that he could not. She had managed to best Saburo in a game of strength. And the weak little human that he had always seen her as was gone.

She hadn't said much about how she had killed someone in cold blood. He had even examined her for psychological repercussions of the act, but it appeared that she didn't feel she did anything wrong. She was acting as if it was just like squashing a bug.

Not to say that disturbed Kululu. He had acted like that many times when he had killed humans. But he was much better than human kind. They really were like bugs to him.

It just intrigued him that Mois cared so little for how she had taken a life.

 _I misjudged her. I thought she was some sort of weak little human but I was wrong._ He knew he should have seen this sooner, time and time again she had proven to him that her wit was far beyond what he had given her credit for. He just didn't know her strength was also.

He was thankful that she had slayed Saburo for him. But he was also quite shocked. He had always seen their relationship as a give and take. She would give kisses and energy to him and in return he'd protect her from the fae world to the best of his abilities.

He was her guardian, her protector in a way. But it seemed like she honestly didn't need one. She was completely capable on her own. After all she had taken down a fae high lord, and she didn't even have any bruises to show for it.

 _I wonder if she used her wit to beat him or her strength. Could she have taken out the bull that was guarding my imprisonment too?_ Kululu didn't know. Perhaps that was why she had been so unconcerned by the attack, and it wasn't her kindness showing through.

 _No, what am I talking about? It's totally her kindness._ He knew she wasn't as strong as he was giving her current credit for. After all she had made several naive mistakes just out of curiosity, going to inns that were just lying there in wait as if a trap and not knowing a lot about the fae kingdom. She would have been lured with her gullibility if not for him, although she was getting slightly better.

Kululu smiled to himself. Mois might have been a bit of a mystery and he didn't know how she had bested Saburo, but the facts still remained that she had saved his life. And for that he was grateful.

Kululu looked ahead of him at the fae tour guide who was showing him around his dominion, so he could correct things and order his servants to make the kingdom more to his liking.

"My lord, may I ask you something?" The fae in front of him whimpered.

Kululu gave a curt nod as he glanced around at various statues and paintings of his family and him that were now being hanged up again.

"What are your orders concerning that human with you?" The fae asked. "Now that we're not bound by the deceiver's rules-" The name that the fae had given Saburo upon his fall was the deceiver. "We can kill humans like in the old days. Some of us even want to get back to the bloodshed! So we all wanted to know what to do with the little creature."

"You haven't touched her without my permission, correct?" Kululu asked. Currently Mois was sleeping in her chambers, a guest chamber that Kululu had given her to stay in. He had placed an enchantment on it that wouldn't let her leave. He wanted to do some house cleaning before she was free to wander the night court. He wanted to make sure everything was to his liking.

The fae shook his head. "Several fae are around the doors to her chambers though, wondering who she is and what to do with her."

"She will not be touched." Kululu ordered, "According to fae rules, I am indebted to her. She saved my life twice, first by freeing me from my imprisonment that you were all happy to stand by and watch...Ku, ku, ku." Kululu glared at the servant, "And second she brought the night court back to my rule. So we are not allowed to harm her." He nodded, "She will be treated as an honored guest by all the fae in this court. Is that clear?"

The servant nodded, understanding the sacred fae rules. Although he looked like he didn't like it, he was content with the answer.

"She saved you three times." The servant corrected, "She killed the deceiver and then she dragged you to your chambers, breaking the locks and holing up in there to take care of you when the rest of us had assumed you were as good as dead."

Kululu frowned. That sounded just like Mois. Although he wasn't too proud of his court from what they were saying. "Got it. Now...Bring me to the other human in my kingdom. I owe that one nothing." He ordered.

The servant nodded. Keroro was currently partying around with Tamama and most of the fae had been avoiding both of them for fear of them.

So he led Kululu away from the tour.

* * *

Kululu actually did have business with Keroro besides yelling at him. Keroro was the wizard that had cursed Kululu and because of that he knew if he threatened enough Keroro would be able to take the curse off.

Although Kululu didn't mind kissing Mois, his overlaying goal really was to get free of his curse and be able to do things on his own.

 _Perhaps its already wearing off. I've noticed I have a lot more power than I first believed. I've been able to do spells for far longer and I've been able to invent again. Sometimes when I try to do magic I realize the only thing holding me back is the belief that I can't because of my curse._ He wondered to himself if meeting Keroro again had made Keroro's petty curse wear off.

"Oh! I heard you became high lord again!" Keroro waved at Kululu once he saw him, sitting at a table and eating something with Tamama, all magically disenchanted by his power. "Congratulations." He acted friendly as if nothing had happened between them at all.

Kululu grit his teeth. "Yes. And now that I'm a high lord, I have an order for you. You are no longer allowed in my kingdom. It's clear that I can't kill you, so I'll banish you instead. Ku, ku, ku. Dawn never comes here, so if you aren't gone in a week I'll order my fae soldiers to kill you."

Keroro scoffed. He didn't believe Kululu could do it. "But I couldn't leave Tamama here! Me and him were hoping to stay until we figure out where Tamama wants to go and what he wants to do with his life. We're trying to figure out where demons would be embraced best."

"I don't care. As long as I'm with you, Keroro." Tamama smiled at the wizard.

Kululu waved a hand. "I don't care. You can take Tamama with you if you wish. He's yours. Just get lost."

"Sore loser." Keroro coughed under his breath. "He wants me gone because he's humiliated that I beat him."

Tamama giggled a bit.

Kululu glared. "Before you leave though...I have something to ask you." He sat down next to Keroro, ignoring his mocking jabs. "The curse you placed on me has been a big thorn in my side. Remove it." He ordered.

Keroro looked at him confused. "You mean...You don't know how to break it yourself?"

Kululu looked at him stunned for a moment. There was a weakness to it? "No..." He hissed, "You neglected to mention anyway to break it."

Keroro laughed loudly, slapping his knees. "I guess I forgot to tell you! I must have assumed you already knew. After all all humans are familiar with the rules of curses like these. They're commonly known in all sorts of stories. But maybe fae don't know that because they're heartless."

Kululu glared. He felt ashamed. Maybe he should have asked Mois. After all she was human too. But she hadn't told him any way to break the curse. "Fae aren't familiar with human laws."

Keroro shook his head. "I should have realized that." He laughed. "Fae don't have legends like humans do. But it's so obvious how to break these things to humans! I can't believe you've been cursed five hundred years and never once figured out how to break it!"

Kululu's eye twitched. "Cut to the chase!" He yelled. His hand was clenched into a fist, wishing he had something sharp to stab Keroro with.

Keroro tried to stop laughing and eventually managed to squeak out some words. "You see, the trick with all these curses is that they can be broken with some sort of love. It's a human gimmick. Everybody knows about it. Haven't you ever read any fairy tales?"

Kululu shook his head as he listened to Keroro's words. _Love, huh?_ Love was largely unfamiliar to him. He hadn't had any sorts of affections for his family members that he could remember, although rage had fueled his torture of humans at the lose of his sister. He didn't know if that counted as him loving her as a family member should, he always felt it had just been fueled by loss.

Love was supposed to be something that made you happy, and sometimes sad. It gave you a wide range of emotions that you generally didn't feel normally. Then had Saburo and him shared love? No, it had been a friendship only between the two of them, although Kululu had been quite hurt by his betrayal.

Only one person Kululu could think about off the top of his head was someone Kululu cherished, wanted to keep near him and made him happy. It was Mois.

He had never quite labeled what he was developing towards her. He had previously labeled it as desire, wanting to kiss her, to do very sexual things with her, to have her as his. But the emotion that she made him feel and how much he cared about her fit 'love' better than anything.

So was the person he had bonded with the key to his curse?

"What about love?" Kululu asked, thinking of Mois.

"The curse will be broken as soon as you find true love with someone. You don't have to do anything with them, you just have to love them. You have to love someone as much as you care about yourself." Keroro told him, waiting for his surprise and probably cries.

But Kululu didn't cry or do anything humiliating, instead he looked calm. _Ah. So that's why I was able to invent suddenly and use my magic._ The curse had already started breaking and if Kululu was correct, it was already broken. Focusing on the power around him, he felt the magic and power that was supposed to be locked running through his veins. _It must have started breaking as soon as I started falling for Mois._

He didn't know how to react with the knowledge that he was in love with Mois, truly and almost desperately. He was a smart guy so it didn't seem like that much of a surprise. He had kind of suspected that he was slowly changing and falling for her for a while now but he had pushed any premise of loving her aside. Desperate to sacrifice her to the red queen to break his curse instead.

Kululu had loved her, and probably he would have gotten cold feet if they had met the red queen. But the curse had really started breaking once Kululu started loving her more than he cared about himself. He was egotistical, as befitted a fae lord, but once he cared more about Mois's safety than his own life the curse had started breaking.

 _I love her...I love Mois._ The words alone felt foreign. But together it just seemed to fit. Although at first there was a little bit of panic rising inside of him that he had fallen for a human instead of the other way around, and a cute little naive human covered in innocence, there was also a bit of shyness. Kululu didn't like doubting himself but more than once the thought ran through his head that she didn't like him as much as he cared about her.

He quickly pushed that aside. He was a high lord. This was pathetic to panic and feel embarrassed that he was in love.

He didn't speak anymore to Keroro. Instead Kululu stood up slowly and walked away, not responding and seeming to still be in shock.

He walked out of the room slowly, thinking to himself now about the condition he was in. In love with a human.

 _I have to be calm about this. Stop being all nervous._ Kululu slapped his own hand. He was a high lord. _Anyone would be honored and amazed that I was in love with them. After all, I'm incredibly handsome!_ Kululu tried to remind himself. _I could have anyone I wanted, I'm a high lord I could make them mine. Mois's the same way even if she's a human._ He had to stop being some sort of teenage human all embarrassed about this. He was a fae, and a responsible adult at that. So he calmed himself. He was better than that. _The feelings can't give me any trouble if I accept them. There's no reason that Mois wouldn't be overjoyed that I was in love with her._ He decided to do the wise choice instead of the stupid one- accepting his feelings. After all if he accepted what he wanted he could act like a fae should, and get what he wanted. _I'll make her mine._ He had already tried seducing Mois before, but now that he was doing it for him, to get her to not just love him, but to become his, stay in the fae kingdom with him as his queen, he'd pull out all the dirty tricks he needed to. _There's all sorts of stories of humans falling for the beautiful fae. I see no reason why that can't happen again._

Kululu's smile twisted into a wicked grin. "An order to all fae in the night court." Kululu announced as he sat lazily on his throne, "The human, Mois, is our honored guest. You will treat her with the utmost respect since she saved me. Do anything she asks, we are indebted to her." Kululu ordered, "We will hold a banquet in her honor tonight. I expect you all to not try to kill her or anything."

The fae in front of him nodded, but Kululu heard some of them chattering amongst themselves in confusion when he got up.

"I don't like this." Some of the fae chattered, "Humans shouldn't be treated with respect. I agree with our high lord that we should kill all of them."

A lot of the fae still harbored resentment against humans, wanting to kill them.

"I don't understand why she's an honored guest! Shouldn't another fae be paid attention to by our high lord?" Another one asked, jealous. Several of the fae girls and even boys didn't understand why someone with such low status was being treated with dignity.

"You don't understand what our high lord is saying." Another one pointed out, "He is a demon after all." They said in a hushed voice, "Maybe a demon like him is using a human like her as a tasty treat."

"Tasty treat? Are we going to eat her?" Another one asked.

The other fae winked. "Not that kind of treat. Didn't you hear from the deceiver that she's his pet? Even a demon like our high lord has needs...Of the sexual variety. I don't mind that he's satisfying himself on a human. Everyone serves the high lord, it's what is right. Even human girls have their purpose."

Several fae nodded. They'd rather Kululu have someone like her than them.

Suddenly things made a bit more sense to them.

* * *

Soon enough Mois the doors to Mois's guest chamber opened and a fae was sent in to fetch her.

"The high lord is finished making the court his again." The fae bowed to her. "He requests your presence in the dining hall. You are too be honored for your help."

 _Kululu didn't come to tell me that he was done himself?_ She wondered. She supposed this was the way things were when one was a ruler. They had servants doing things for them instead of acting like normal people. She missed the close companionship she and Kululu had.

"I don't need to be honored." Mois shook her head. The fae didn't listen to her. Instead he took Mois by the arm and led her to the dining hall.

Mois was quickly sat by Kululu's side at a large table. Kululu was at the head of the table along with her. He smiled at her as she was sat down.

A banquet was in front of her with all sorts of glittering foods, a variety of different things were there and it was the largest banquet Mois had ever seen.

Kululu took Mois's hand and grasped it. "Good to see you." He greeted, "Did you sleep well?" He made light conversation.

"Yes. But you really don't need to serve a banquet in my honor-" Mois tried to say. Kululu didn't listen to her.

He rang a bell so that all the fae would listen to him. "This feast is honor of the human who slayed the deceiver and our honored guest in the night court." He told them. After a moment as all the fae bowed to Mois, he granted them permission to eat.

Everybody started tearing into the food like wicked little gremlins. Everyone except Mois that was.

Kululu glanced at her. "I created this banquet just for you, you know. I know you're probably from some poor village. You've never been treated like a queen." He gave a sly smile, "Ku, ku, ku. Well no more! Your wishes shall be granted."

He picked up a goblet of succulent wine.

Mois shook her head. "I can't eat any fae food. Remember?" She dipped her head in respect, "I'm sorry. It all looks so beautiful, but I wouldn't want to get you in trouble by imprisoning me in your kingdom."

Kululu sighed, "Don't worry. I thought of that ahead of time. All the ingredients are human food. Although it looks beautiful because of our chefs, it won't imprison you. Ku, ku, ku. I wouldn't be much of a host if I served you something you couldn't eat, would I?"

Mois smiled at him. His words sounded honest, so she believed him. He was bound to honor after all since he was indebted to her.

"Thank you." She smiled at him, taking the apple in her hands and biting down into it. She smiled broadly as she ate, giving him several happy nods.

Kululu grinned. He was glad she was enjoying herself. He leaned on his hand, his elbow on the table, to look at her better. "You do realize that technically because of fae rules, I'm in your debt because you killed Saburo, right?"

Mois continued eating, slowing down a bit to listen to him.

"I really don't like being in a human's debt though. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu continued. Although his new goal was to seduce her, he still acted as disinterested as he usually did. "That's why I would prefer to see us as equals." _Hopefully this will help take away any boundaries or fears she has about loving me. I know she's always seen us as equals despite me being a fae high lord and it's really me who feels I'm inferior to her, but saying out loud that we're equals should make her realize that I don't think I'm better than her._

Just as Kululu expected Mois's eyes lit up at the confession that Kululu wanted to be equal to her. Despite the fact that she was supposed to be proper and following norms at a banquet, she dropped her food on her plate and threw her arms around him in a tight hug, that seemed to be inappropriate public displays of affection to all the onlookers.

Fae didn't hug. They embraced intensely, but Mois was giving Kululu a friendly hug, a very naive gesture.

Kululu could feel himself blush as he pat the girl's back, prying her off of him. He coughed awkwardly. "M-maybe when we're alone? That hug's too innocent for here. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois giggled and smiled. "I didn't know you were embarrassed. That's so cute!"

Kululu changed the subject, "Anyway, I want to be equals with you. But I'm still indebted to you. That's why I want to give you this." He handed her a silver bell.

Mois held onto it, caressing it in her hands. "What is it?"  
"Ring it and I'll come to you at a moment's notice." Kululu told her, "I have a lot of duties as high lord, but this will let me hear you when you need something. Ku, ku, ku. I want your stay in the night court to be perfect. So any wish you have will be granted. Anything your mind can come up with."

Mois smiled. "Thank you." She wanted to hug him again, but she shoved that to the back of her head. She'd do it later.

Right now she just wanted to show her friend that they really were equals. Nothing could change that for her.

* * *

In the next few days, Mois felt a bit weird in the night court. Although she didn't see Kululu all the time, because he had duties, he tried to be with her as much as he could, leaving to do work while she slept.

He wouldn't act like the Kululu she knew though. Instead of the teasing jerk she once knew, he'd greet her with the utmost respect, kissing her hand and bowing to her.

He seemed to be going by all the rules, acting like a gentleman, something Mois wasn't accustomed to him doing, getting doors for her and chairs. Although it was cute in its own way it was odd. Very unusual.

 _I do like Kululu acting like this. But its just odd...Is this because he's high lord again and has to generate an image of himself?_ She knew for a fact Kululu was more of a jokester than this. More easy going. More of a jerk.

Although to be fair, he was acting a bit like a jerk still. Every moment he saw her he would try to steal kisses. And although she knew that the contract in their soul bond stated that he could only get energy from lip on lip contact, he wasn't always doing lip on lip contact with her. He would still kiss her, but he preferred to kiss her with a new intensity, sometimes just kissing her ears, covering her neck with soft kisses, his hands wandering up and down the outside of her thigh.

His kisses became more like hidden make out sessions, he liked dragging her behind curtains while other fae were conducting business and kissing her without being caught. But his kisses seemed to be less on a schedule and more like he wanted to do them all the time.

They were flirty, and Mois could feel no energy passing between them at all. Eventually she did ask after Kululu greeted her one day, by propping her against a wall and covering her neck in kisses as if he wanted to figure out every little secret about it.

"K-kululu! You can't get energy from t-there-" She reminded him, trying not to shiver and moan as she held on tightly to his shoulder blades, dragging her nails down them trying not to shriek. "I don't know why you're acting so..." Horny was the word she was looking for, but her mouth was not dirty enough to say it, "Flirty."

Kululu slowly took his mouth off of her. "Of course I can't get energy from your neck." He wasn't an idiot. "I'm not trying to get energy." He kissed along her neck up to her mouth, kissing it again sweetly.

She was much too easily aroused. And he didn't want an only sexual relationship. He wanted her to love him, and for that to happen he had to kiss her sweeter, more lovingly.

Mois smiled as he kissed her, "Are you taking any energy?" She asked him concerned, she didn't feel like she had lost any energy. It was like he was kissing her just to kiss her.

"No." Kululu admitted.

"What about your curse? Aren't you going to be in trouble if any fae decided to try to fight against you?" Mois was very worried for him. She pulled away not letting her kiss her any longer, dragging his hands off of her waist so she could hold them.

Kululu frowned. Had he forgotten to tell her that silly thing was gone? "Curse broke." He said simply, "No more reason to take energy."

Mois could feel herself blush. Was he just kissing her because he wanted to then? _He's kind of a pervert._ She frowned a little bit to herself. "Well then." If he wasn't going to be professional and proper, she would be. "There's no more reason to kiss now is there?" She tried to make it sound like she was relieved.

Even though they kissed constantly Mois always acted like she was embarrassed a little bit. It was all very intense and fast for her, and her mind just always blanked when he was kissing her. It was so good. She didn't like blanking.

Kululu frowned, caressing her cheek and looking at her. "There's always a reason to kiss. Maybe I just want to kiss someone as cute as you~." He flirted, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

Mois shook her head. "If the curse is gone there's no reason-"

"Maybe I don't want to stop kissing." Kululu shrugged, "I would miss your lips so much. They're intoxicating."

Mois was a deep shade of red. _This is why I don't want to! He keeps kissing me for some sort of weird flirtation sort of thing. And I don't know why he's doing it...It makes me feel all weird and fuzzy to know that's his reason. But I wanted to help him, I kissed him for him, not for me. I have things to do, a mission to fulfill._ She still had to meet with the red queen, and kissing Kululu put too many new thoughts in her head, it no longer served a purpose that she could use as a blanket and reason for her doing it.

Kissing Kululu gave her too many thoughts. And she needed a clear head. She didn't need to be thinking about her feelings and emotions towards Kululu. "There's no need." Her word was final, "Okay?"

Kululu frowned. "Fine." He sounded a bit bitter. His eyes seemed to be scheming with new plans to probably get her to kiss him. _So I need to win her heart first. She likes kissing me too. I can tell. She just likes hiding behind a reason and purpose. But once I get her to like me and she accepts it, we'll be back to normal._ Kululu smiled to himself.

He could read Mois pretty easily. She was a naive romantic. And naive romantics needed big gestures to win them over.

Well, he was a high lord. Big gestures were easy for him.

* * *

Mois smiled in her room. Although she felt a bit awkward about Kululu having celebrations in her honor for saving the night court she had never ever been to a dance before and he had announced that there would be a ball in her honor.

She couldn't deny that she was excited.

 _I've heard of balls. They have all sorts of dancing and lots of people and they sound so fun!_ When Kululu had given her the idea that he'd have a ball she had some fears against it, telling him she didn't have a dress for such an occasion.

He had been happy enough to deliver a sleek purple dress for her. It was sparkling and shining like most of the fae kingdom and she had been more than happy to let some fae servants help her into it. She was slowly realizing that the dress that she was practicing walking in, was first of all designed by Kululu, it was clear that although the design was meant to be alluring showing off a good portion of her back and her legs that it had many unnecessary buttons and zippers and it took a real genius to figure out the order to put it on and take it off, and second, she was unable to get out of it without help. Most likely Kululu's help.

 _Knew he was still a jerk even though he's the high lord._ Mois could feel herself smiling at the knowledge that it was the same Kululu as the one she had always known.

The clock reached the number that the ball was supposed to be, 7' o' clock. Mois left her room excitedly heading to the large ball room.

As she followed other fae into the large crystal doors, she saw all sorts of faces all different from each other. Fae were happily chattering around her and dancing with one another.

Mois didn't have the time to count them all. She knew that there were at least over thousands of guests. She tried to look out for Kululu, or at least Tamama. They were the only ones she knew.

She noticed Tamama dancing with Keroro, leaning on his chest. Keroro waved to her and gave her a thumbs up.

 _I thought Kululu said he kicked Keroro out. Oh well. I guess he's still here._ Mois decided after some thought that she wouldn't interrupt them. Once they had spun around and Tamama was the one facing her he was giving her some sort of awful death glare.

It was a tiny bit intimidating.

She waved good-bye to the couple and walked along the golden floor. She tried not to notice how all the fae seemed to move aside to let her pass as if they didn't want to be near her.

"Did you notice how she has no scent?" Mois heard some fae chatter into their hands, gossiping about her.

"I know. It's odd. Each fae has a scent and it just seems like she's...dead without one." Another fae responded. "But that's normal for her species, right?"

"No! It's not." Another one chattered, "Humans have a putrid scent. They smell like rotting food. Evil. Although the human demon hybrid in our kingdom's demon blood drowns out his human scent you should be able to smell the human on his companion." The fae pointed out.

"Isn't it odd that she smells of nothing then? Just barren?" Another fae pointed out.

Mois passed by them, not listening to their chatter. _At least its better than what other fae have said that I smell like Kululu because of how close we are. I bet that would be awkward for them._ She hurried her pace, but she heard other fae gossiping about her.

"The high lord's pet. I wonder when he'll tire of her." Someone pointed out.

"Eventually. After all, she's just a novelty, right? It's fun and interesting to amuse her for now, but eventually we'll all tire of her newness. That's what novelty's are." The other fae responded.

"Maybe she'll fall in love with our high lord. Lots of humans fall for fae and then are lured to their death because of their emotions." Another one was hopeful.

"Even if she fell for him, it would just add something new to her novelty status. Maybe our high lord would even start collecting humans! That would be amusing. I could see it becoming a new trend to seduce humans and then kill them when we tire of them." The fae laughed.

Mois's face scrunched up. She didn't like hearing about this. She quickly tried to run forward, trying to lose herself in the crowd.

 _They're kind of right. I'm just an amusing novelty to Kululu at the moment. A lost little human as he calls me._ Mois closed her eyes. She no longer had a reason to stay. The curse was broken on Kululu so there was no real reason for him to be nice to her, to let her stay. Yet she had stayed just to be by Kululu's side. Because she enjoyed his company. Thought of him as a friend. _Why is he being so nice to me?_ She wondered. It didn't feel right, or like him. She knew he was bound by debt, but Kululu was a trickster, clever. He would have figured out a way to be rid of her without breaking laws if he wanted to.

 _Maybe the issue is me. I chose to stay here. I'm not telling him good-bye and going on to do my own things. My own goals._ She reminded herself. She was supposed to be doing other things, but the allure of the night court had captured her. The castle was like a dream, and everything there, the alluring secrets, the rooms of the castle, the magic, and even the high lord was messing with her brain. It was capturing her interest and taking her away from her goals.

Just like the stories of so many humans besides her.

"Mois." Kululu smiled, having finally found her. "I knew you were here somewhere. I was kind of hoping you'd ring your bell to alert me of your presence. Ku, ku, ku. Then I wouldn't have to go looking for you." Kululu offered his hand, no longer touching her without her permission and now waiting for her to make a move, as to respect her boundaries.

Mois took his hand. "I knew I'd bump into you eventually. You could say, drawn to you?"

Kululu grinned.

"I mean like I'd run into you!" She corrected.

Kululu was still smiling. "I like your dress. It looks perfect on you. Ku, ku, ku." Although he didn't touch her, he did ogle her quite obviously. He wasn't the least bit subtle about it.

Mois sighed, "Aren't you going to ask me to dance-"

Kululu put a finger to her lip to shush her, "Don't steal my line. Of course I am. After all, you've never been to a ball like this. I'm sure your knowledge of it is only the dancing. Ku, ku, ku." He bowed to her, "Would you like to dance with me, Mois?"

Mois nodded and took his hand. Snapping his fingers the orchestra started playing a new tune, more soothing and slow.

Kululu put his hand around Mois's waist and the other on her hand. "Do you know how to dance?" He finally realized.

"Yes. I didn't go to any balls, but I did like to pretend I did. You could say, ball for one?" Mois smiled at the memories.

Kululu didn't want to tell her how sad that sounded. Instead he mostly led the dancing, happy enough that she wasn't stepping on his feet.

 _I would have expected him to tease me about my inexperience, or lure me into stepping on his feet._ Mois thought to herself. Usually Kululu was much more of a jerk, but instead he was patient with her inexperience at never having a partner, leading her and being gentle with her.

She felt herself relaxing against his touch, leaning against his chest and smiling. She liked listening to the music and letting herself become possessed by the rhythm and being spun and dipped.

Kululu and her made small conversation, none of it being teasing. It was like his goal wasn't to be a jerk till the end for once. He was just polite, good natured. It didn't seem real or like him at all.

Although it did make her suspicious eventually she just listened to everything around her, glancing into his eyes every now and then.

Unfortunately when she became too absorbed in everything around her, she started hearing the fae chattering and gossiping around her.

"Do you see her skin? It's so different from ours." One of the fae pointed out. "What a tan color. Do you think that's a symbol of her low class in the human world?"

"She's kind of ugly. Her body isn't as perfectly shaped as ours. It doesn't look normal." Another gossiped.

"She's so different from us." Another gossiped.

Mois buried her face into Kululu's shirt. She didn't really care about their gossip about her. She just kind of didn't want Kululu hearing it.

Luckily, her wishes were granted as the gossip was interrupted by a group of pretty fae girls passing by.

"High lord." They curtsied to Kululu when Kululu and Mois stopped dancing to let them pass.

"Hello." Kululu finally said after a moment.

"This ball is wonderful." One giggled, "You never used to be this fancy and good natured before. All your plans were about torturing humans, not to say that's a bad thing."

Kululu nodded, "Thought it was time for a change of pace. I'm not the same person as I was five hundred years ago. Ku, ku, ku."

"We know. You're much more handsome! Actually my friend was wondering if she could dance with you..." The fae smiled.

"We were all wondering if we could cut in and dance with you." The other one corrected, "We'd be so honored if you'd spend some time with us."

One of the fae wandered up to Kululu's arm, stroking it as Mois moved aside awkwardly. The fae girl leaned up and whispered something into Kululu's ear, making sure to show off a good amount of cleavage.

Kululu got a very awkward look as if this wasn't normal for him to be getting this much attention from other fae.

"I'll find you later, okay?" The fae girl kissed Kululu on the cheek and wandered off.

Mois started backing away, not wanting to get in Kululu's way of girls flirting with him.

"Going to have to reject your offers to dance for now." Kululu shook his head, "Ku, ku, ku. It's Mois's party after all. I want her to be entertained. And there's no fae boys asking her to dance."

The girls frowned, "We can find one to entertain your human." They offered.

Kululu shook his head quickly. His excuse had been foiled. "She's being overstimulated by the party. She's never been to one of these before. I'm going to take her to get some fresh air." He quickly grabbed Mois's hand before she could get away and lead her away to the balcony where not many people were.

 _Overstimulated? Really? Am I some pet that he has to look after now?_ Mois thought, but she let Kululu lead her.

"Sorry about that." He apologized once they were under the night sky and alone. "That was the best excuse I could come up with to get you away."

"Why did I have to go away?" Mois asked. _Did he not want me to dance with some other fae?_

"I heard a lot of the fae gossiping about you. You know, about your skin and appearance..." Kululu admitted, "I thought you could use some time away from that."

Mois's irritation faded. She leaned against the balcony. So he had heard the gossip, and he had tried to get her away from that. Although she was still felt a little weird to see other girls flirting with Kululu, she knew he had a responsibility to dance with other people besides her, if he was popular there was nothing she could do and no reason he shouldn't be popular.

She sighed and looked at the stars. "This balcony is beautiful." It had so many roses and such a clear view of the stars.

Kululu slowly weaseled his way up to her, sliding closer to her as she looked out at the stars. He slowly put his hand on her's, glancing up at her to see if that was okay.

She nodded, letting him hold her hand. She smiled to herself, squeezing his hand back. He had never been okay with small gestures like this before.

"Does it bother you that we're different?" Kululu asked finally, "They were pointing out how different you are to them, and since I'm different than them that must make us really different. Ku, ku, ku. Does it ever bother you that we look different and are different species?"

"It doesn't." Mois said honestly.

Kululu didn't look like he believed her.

"Honestly their gossip doesn't hurt me at all. I don't put much thought into my appearance or think about it." Mois shrugged.

Kululu stroked her hair, brushing it out of her face. "I think you're pretty-"

"I didn't mean it as a bad thing. It honestly doesn't bother me that I'm a human and look very different than these other people." Mois shrugged. "You could say, thank you for worrying though?"

Kululu smiled. "No problem." He realized Mois was being honest. She really didn't care and wasn't getting sad or insecure.

He looked out at the stars with her.

"Oh! So what did that cute fae girl say to you before she kissed you?" Mois nudged Kululu curiously. They may have previously been closer than two friends were supposed to be, having a very sexual and physical sort of bond, but that didn't mean she couldn't be supportive of other people with Kululu. Sure it made her feel a little weird, but they weren't together and Kululu didn't need to know that.

"Oh she said-" Quickly as if on cue, the same fae showed up. Not noticing Mois or ignoring her, she smiled at Kululu.  
"Would you like to accompany me to my bed?" She winked at Kululu and tugged at his hands.

Finally noticing Mois after a moment, she sighed. "I'll let you deal with this first. I'll be waiting." She winked again before blowing a kiss and leaving.

"Oh." Mois finished as soon as she was gone. "So she was propositioning you." She was quiet for a moment.

"Yeah...She uhhh was flirting with me." Kululu admitted.

"Well then, good day." Mois smiled and waved at him, curtseying. "I suppose this is where you leave. I can look around the party and do other things so don't let me keep you." She turned away awkwardly.

"Hey!" Kululu grabbed her arm, "For goodness sake, did I ever once recuperate any of those girls flirtatious remarks? Ku, ku, ku. I'm not that sort of person. I'm not flirty." He crossed his arms. "I'm not leaving."

Mois twirled around a bit surprised. Something inside of her felt slightly happier and less nausea at the idea of Kululu sleeping with other girls.

"Ku, real interesting that you're jealous though. You didn't want to be around any of those people flirting with me at all." Kululu teased, "It's cute, don't worry. I don't mind you being jealous." He waited for her to deny her jealousy.

Mois sighed and leaned back on the balcony, looking at the stars. "I am jealous." She quietly whispered.

"Yess...I mean, go on." Kululu coughed awkwardly. Mois glanced at him. Had she heard a yes? Why was he happy that she was jealous.

"Not of the girls flirting with you, don't worry!" Mois corrected, "I'm jealous of how many people are in the night court. There's people everywhere. And it looks like you have so many companions...So many friends..." She admitted.

Kululu put his arm around her, seeing that she was shivering from the cold. "Why would you be jealous of something like that?"

"In my home I didn't have nearly as many friends, I didn't even have servants I talked to. It was so lonely..." Mois confessed. Her voice was quiet, as if she didn't like talking about her home.

Kululu pulled her closer in some sort of hug.

"They aren't my friends." He confessed, "People are only being nice to me at the moment because I'm not Saburo. Ku, ku, ku. They disliked him even more than me."

"Why do you say that?" Mois asked.

"They used to fear me and hate me, talk behind my back pettily like what they're doing to you. They were more than happy to get rid of me five hundred years ago, they're just pretending now that I'm the most amazing thing ever because things have been so terrible for five hundred years. Some even threatened my life when I was little. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu admitted.

Mois immediately felt sorry for envying him. She hugged him. "Was it because you were part demon?"

Kululu nodded.

"I don't think you're poison, you know. I like you. I like every part of you!" She nuzzled up to him.

Kululu smiled down at her. _She's too sweet for this party. It's not impressing her._ Kululu thought to himself. He wanted to make them more alone. Give them time to talk and not be interrupted with girls who were oddly throwing themselves at him.

"Let's go. I want to go somewhere more quiet, if that's all right. I have something to show you." Kululu offered his arm.

Mois nodded.

* * *

Kululu took her outside the castle to the beautiful night court gardens. Although it was night almost constantly in the night court, the flowers were blue and still shining and lovely. Fireflies in the air and the moonlight shining down.

Sculptures were hidden away in the maze that Kululu led her through and it was very quiet. Eventually he found a nice place with a fountain and sat down, patting the grass next to him and letting Mois sit down.

Eventually they laid down next to each other to look at the stars.

"No human land sees the stars the same way we do. We have a clearer view and see constellations only available to fae." Kululu pointed out, showing her the sky.

"You wanted to show me the sky?" Mois asked. It was such a simple gesture, so genuine, it was something she never expected from Kululu.

"Yep. I wanted you to relax. You deserve it. You've defeated the terrible threat Saburo and saved the kingdom." Kululu was relaxing.

Mois let herself hold Kululu's hand as she leaned on his shoulder and looked up at the sky. Her mind wasn't relaxing though. Instead it was buzzing with all sorts of thoughts.

 _The curse is gone. There's no real reason for us to be spending time with one another._ Mois reminded herself. _I'm not his energy source any longer. We don't have a soul bond. So what's going to happen to me now? What's going to happen to us...?_

 _What are his plans?_

She wanted to ask, and so desperately she opened her mouth. But instead of the question burning on her mind, she instead spurted out the other thing pressing on her mind. "Were any of those fae girls your ex-lovers or your girlfriends?"

She felt herself turning red at the question. Why was she still thinking about the girls who had flirted with Kululu? Why was so she concerned.

Kululu laughed loudly. "Ku, ku, ku!" It was like the funniest suggestion ever to him. After wiping away tears from his laughter, he finally answered, "It's funny that you would think that. Didn't know you were still jealous."

"Just answer it." Mois rolled her eyes.

"No. That stuff like kissing or anything more didn't interest me that much before you. And even if it did, and I'm not going to tell you if it did, although I'm very beautiful I have several weaknesses that make me very unappealing to fae girls." Kululu admitted.

"Like?" Mois didn't understand. He had always bragged about how beautiful he was before.

"Oh, I don't know. My terrible attitude, my creepy demeanor, and glasses which are seen as a bad flaw being three. Not to mention the demon blood thing." Kululu shrugged.

Mois felt herself relaxing a bit. So none of those girls had been Kululu's ex's and he had felt awkward because he wasn't normally flirted with like that.

She squeezed his hand.

"What about you? Ever have a human boyfriend? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed. He knew she never had. The way she had freaked out about him being shirtless and how she had kissed him had made it obvious that was her first kiss.

"There was really only one human family that I interacted much with in the village." Mois admitted. "They were nice, their daughter I'd like to consider was a friend of mine. I don't know if the feeling was mutual though."  
"What was she like?" Kululu asked.

"Her name was Asami." Mois sighed, "She was very strong, determined to do her best to survive. She was amazing. I think she was my first ever role model." She smiled, remembering Asami. "I really cared about her."

"What happened?" Kululu asked.

"I got lost in the fae forest." Mois shrugged, "I don't know how long I slept when some sort of flowers had this pheromone that put me to sleep, but she's probably dead by now. It was probably more than fifty years or something." Mois sighed.

Kululu looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry." Did that mean her family was gone too? "You don't know for sure that you slept that long." He pointed out.

"I guess you're right." Mois admitted.

"So you just interacted with your friend Asami. No boyfriends? Or was there something going on between the two of you?" Kululu asked.

"I'm single." Mois told him.

"Ah, so you're single. And I'm single! What's a pair of sad single people like us supposed to do?" He grinned at her. Although he felt like his grin was cracking.

That was probably the worst pick-up line he had ever given. It was rather pathetic. He felt himself breaking from how badly flirtatious that was.

Mois didn't even seem to get that he was flirting with her. "Plenty of people are interested in you right now." She pointed out, too dense to even pick up on the bad pick up line. "You could choose anyone you want. You could say, the pick of the litter?"

Kululu sighed and didn't even listen to her. Instead he pulled her on top of him, once she was sitting on him, he pulled her face closer to his so she was lying on top of him and he could look at her better.

She felt herself embarrassed by the position, her legs straddling Kululu, although lying on his chest was comfortable so she had no real complaints. The dress she was in hadn't even getting tangled.

Kululu kissed her right then, even though she had made it clear that kissing served no purpose. "Well then I choose you. I have all I want right here after all." He seemed to be tired with trying to flirt with her and just wanted to be direct.

Mois blushed as he gestured to her. She pressed up against Kululu's chest to prop herself up.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked.

"The night court is mine. And so are you by your logic that I can have anyone I want. Ku, ku, ku." His hands drifted to her back, holding her tightly.

Mois could feel herself steaming in embarrassment as Kululu slowly moved up to kiss her, waiting for her to make any complaint or push him away.

As if on instinct she didn't. She was just so used to Kululu kissing her that she almost immediately closed her eyes and kissed back, allowing his hands to slowly drift along her waist and her thighs, massaging the direct skin once he found where the dress ended.

He kissed her slowly, pressing her against him as much as he could and although making small suggestions of where she should move on his body, he let it up to mostly her, letting her go as slow as she wanted.

It was obviously a make out session, and heated, although there was no real purpose to it since no energy was being transferred. Both of them knew that it was romantic in nature.

Kululu's mouth broke off of Mois's for a brief minute to whisper things to her. Mois was turning deep red as he sat up to position her better and let her hold onto him.

 _This isn't happening because of sexual tension._ She realized. _This interaction is romantic isn't it? Or I suppose it could be sexual tension._ It was Kululu after all.

All she knew was she couldn't allow it to continue. Her face was red, and although her body desperately wanted Kululu to continue touching her, very much entranced with his kisses and soft touches which she believed to be romantic or desperately wanted to be romantic, she knew that although he was being slow and letting each touch be meaningful that this was too fast for her.

She was deeply embarrassed too. _This is inappropriate. This is real._ The words kept echoing in her head that the moments shared between them in this garden were real. It was just them doing what they wanted. She was much too embarrassed.

Kululu's hand wandered over to some of her buttons, slowly unbuttoning them on her dress. He wanted her naked. His mouth continued sucking at her neck in the places he knew she liked.

"I-I'm going to turn in for the night." Mois cried, trying to make an excuse so that this wouldn't continue and she could leave to gather her thoughts and feelings and emotions.

Kululu took his mouth off of her and his fingers dropped off of her chest. "Okay."

Mois sighed and smiled. He had taken the excuse.

He helped her get off of him. "I'll come with you. Ku, ku, ku. I'm the only one who knows how to get you out of that dress after all."

Mois could feel herself frowning. _So the end result of this night was always for him to get me naked._ Mois realized. That was something Kululu would do.

She felt dread pile up in her stomach when she realized that she could only refuse herself for so long. Things were getting more and more extremely likely that she would sleep with Kululu.

And if she slept with him, she knew she'd probably stay in the night court forever. She was desperately trying to keep herself from falling in love with Kululu, from admitting that she might like him, but once she was in his bed and they were having sex she knew that she wouldn't be able to lie to herself any longer.

She couldn't let herself stay in the night court by Kululu's side forever. Although it sounded appealing in a way, she couldn't let it happen.

She had something to do still.

* * *

Kululu closed the door to her chambers behind him. Quite eagerly and extra slowly, he started doing the complicated order of unbuttoning her in the most complicated dress ever, as he slowly stripped her naked.

Mois could feel herself blushing, because Kululu's touches were not innocent in the least bit. They weren't of someone who was just undressing her as a job, they were of someone who was undressing her because he wanted her.

Each touch was a caress, a massage. It was like a kiss of his fingers. And Kululu did it slow and torturous and did not let her cover her mouth in the least bit to hide her own moans of desire. Sometimes he even leaned against her, just to let her feel how incredibly aroused he was, causing her to turn even deeper red.

 _He wants me. He wants me so much._ Mois wasn't quite sure if it was an only sexual want or if he wanted her to be his completely. But each touch was making it harder and harder for her to deny him, to remember her mission in her mind.

 _I want him too. I want him to have sex with me so much._ She realized, shuddering at the desire in her own tiny body.

Kululu finally pulled the dress off of Mois, dropping it to the ground, and gladly helping Mois walk off of it.

He stepped back a moment to admire his handy-work of Mois just in her bra and panties, a frilly sort of design that he hadn't yet seen. Mois was covered her breasts a bit with her arms, she was blushing. But Kululu could see the wet stain on her panties.

He smiled, "We better get you out of those, huh? They're dirty." He teased, he moved forward and tugged at the band on her underwear.

"K-kululu-" Mois moaned, she had to stop being seduced by him. She had to stop herself from letting him continue, but she could feel her hand shooting up and tugging at his shirt, her lips meeting his and kissing him.

 _I can't let him have sex with me. I can't let him do what he wants with me._ Mois tried to remind herself, as Kululu stopped undressing her to let her undress him instead. _But would it really be so bad to let him do as much as he wants with me? Nobody's here except us. We won't be interrupted again..._

Mois tried to stop herself from thinking that. _I'll stay here forever if I give in to weak willpower. Humans have fallen for fae time and time again and they've never been heard from again._

 _I'm just like them. I'll be an idiot to accept this. I need to find the red queen._

As if thinking of the red queen, the arousal dimmed from her body a bit and her mind cleared. "Kululu..." Mois gave him one more soft kiss before separating. "We can't do this."

"Why not?" Kululu asked, "Because you're a human and I'm not? I don't care. Ku, you really think I care what other people think?"

"We can't do this," Mois repeated again, "If I sleep with you I won't ever be able to leave the night court." She wanted to cry with about her reason.

"Is that really such a bad thing?" Kululu said under his breath. Mois could hear him. "Do you not want to?"

Mois shook her head, "I want to, it's just...I have to get ready! I need to get ready for bed."

"Fine." Kululu shrugged. He moved away and laid on Mois's bed. "You know where the closet is with night gowns."

He seemed to pose on Mois's bed, as if knowing she'd change her mind. He had no complaints whatsoever about undressing her again. He quickly discarded his shirt and waited for her.

Mois turned red but turned around to pillage the closet. She noticed that now most of the night gowns were only sexy as of now. Kululu must have changed them.

She quickly locked the bathroom door, brushed her hair, and changed her underwear and put on a nightgown.

She then headed back to her bed, where Kululu was waiting, smiling at her.

 _I have to distract him. If he's still aroused he'll somehow weasel into my mind and get me to...I'm not sure, probably throw myself at him and beg him to sleep with me. He could do that. And I would probably do that. I have very weak will power._ Mois was actually decently impressed with her will power at the current moment.

"Let's talk about Saburo's deal with the red queen. You haven't addressed yet that he was working with her, and that the red queen was trying to get rid of the other fae courts." Mois pointed out. This was a subject she was incredibly interested in and Kululu didn't seem to be interested at all.

"What's to say about it? Two awful people worked together." Kululu shrugged, "Ku, now right now I don't want to hear anyone's name on your lips except mine." He leaned over to kiss her again and pull her on the bed with him.

Mois stopped him, but let him pull her on top of him. "Kululu! I'm sleepy!" She lied. For once she wasn't sleepy at all. "I want to go to sleep."

Kululu thought for a moment, "I guess you're right. I don't have any plans to let you sleep and this affair will take an awfully long time. Ku."

 _Did that excuse work?_ Mois wondered.

"I mean I can kind of tell you're making excuses, but hey, I only want to do it if you're into it too. I can try again another day to win you into my bed. I'll let you sleep." Kululu shrugged.

Mois sighed in relief.

"I...I can stay the night with you, if you want." Kululu offered, no longer trying to touch her in a sexual way. He let her sit on him just normally, holding her like a lover despite how uncomfortable it was for him with his boner and the knowledge that it wouldn't be satisfied anytime soon. "Not to have sex with you. Just to sleep with you. We wouldn't do anything. We could just sleep." Kululu gave her a kind smile.

Mois smiled at the offer.

 _So Kululu wants to cuddle or something? That's sweet._ She desperately wanted to accept that offer, but knew it would also bury her deeper in this Kululu issue. "I think I'll just sleep alone, actually."

Kululu frowned, but nodded. "Okay. See you in the morning." He kissed her forehead gently. "I hope you had fun at the party."

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he put it off for later.

And then he left her room. "Good night."

* * *

Kululu awoke in his bed rather happily. After jerking off he had felt much better, and even though Mois hadn't wanted to sleep with him he knew he'd eventually get her too. He had plenty more time to get her to fall in love with him.

Not to mention the fact that she had made out with him quite happily despite there being no reason to. He saw that as progress. So it wasn't a complete loss. That and she had been clearly jealous of other girls flirting with him.

"My lord." A servant knocked on his door.

"What is it?" Kululu asked. That servant was lucky he was in a good mood. He didn't normally wake up this early. He preferred to sleep in.

"The dumb human girl-"

Kululu glared at the servant calling Mois that. "You may call her the human girl. You can't use her name though. That's reserved for me. Ku, ku, ku. But don't call her dumb."

The servant fearfully nodded, afraid Kululu would kill him. "The human girl has left the kingdom."

"WHAT?" Kululu grabbed his coat, readying himself to go after her.

Not only was he surprised because he desperately wanted her to stay with him. He had assumed now that his curse was gone and Mois was safe in a fae kingdom, they had given up on the search for the red queen and settled down in the night court. Or had Mois still wanted to go home?

 _Why did she leave without telling me?_ Kululu felt mad too. She hadn't even said good-bye. If she had to, he would have probably insisted that he go with her.

"She gave me a letter addressed to you. She didn't want to wake you." The servant handed Kululu a letter.

Kululu opened it to read what Mois had written for him.

 _Dear Kululu,_

 _I'm sorry for leaving without telling you. I wanted to say good-bye, but I know how you are. If I had said good-bye you would somehow trick me to stay and then I would want to stay._

Kululu nodded. That was true.

 _I fled because I still need to see the red queen. Despite how handsome you are and how much I like you, I still need to stick to my goals. And being with you distracts me from them. I'm sorry._

 _I think the summer court might have a pathway to the red queen. It's the last place we haven't checked. So I'm heading off there._

 _Don't follow me! You don't have to worry about being in debt to me. I hereby free you. You have repaid me in full with your company, I enjoyed it and I learned so much from you. So please don't come after me. There's no need._

"Like I'll listen to that." Kululu scoffed.

 _Truth be told, I...I lied to you, Kululu. Ever since we met and you assumed that I got lost in the fae kingdom, I let you believe it. I mean sure I was kind of lost in a way. I don't have any knowledge of where I'm going, but I went in here on purpose._

 _I lied to you about wanting to negotiate with the red queen. I came here for one reason and one reason alone._

 _I'm going to kill the red queen. She's caused nothing but chaos. Just like Saburo she needs to be stopped._

 _I'm sorry for lying. There was never any peaceful negotiation that I wanted. I don't want you caught up in this so...Good-bye._

 _I'll always care about you,_

 _Mois._

Kululu crumpled up the paper. So that answered some questions of why she had been so easy-going about killing.

But no way was he not going after her. He was going to Mois and he was going to ask her a heck of a lot of questions.

He wasn't losing the person he loved.

* * *

 **Please review. Sorry it was so smutty this chapter. Next chapter it gets back to the plot.**

 **Next chapter you'll see the summer court too!**


	8. Last Kiss

**8th chapter! This is probably the least smutty of the chapters of them all, although chapter 9 probably will be the same.**

 **Giroro is finally here!**

* * *

 _I have to leave for the summer court._ Kululu packed up some materials that would help him on his journey, but his mind became vivid with fear. Leaving the night court alone after being away for so long would give the possibility of another coupe against him.

Without a high lord the fae would get antsy and try to take over, especially if they saw him as irresponsible and leaving the court in disarray.

Only a few laws in fae rule gave him permission to leave the night court. If there was a meeting between the other fae courts for example, if he needed to talk to another high lord, or if he was trying to retrieve a bride from someplace other than the night court.

It seemed like the last one would fit the best. The fae in the night court might believe it and allow him to leave, since there were sure to be rumors that he left to go retrieve the human girl Mois.

Packing his bags, he sat on his throne and looked out onto his subjects. "I have to leave for the summer court." He told them, "You will all have to remain just as is until I return."

"Why are you leaving?" One of the fae asked, they didn't want Kululu to leave so soon.

"I am retrieving my bride." Kululu recited. It was impossible for them to start a coupe if he used this law. Although he wasn't exactly sure if this was the truth or a lie, he knew he wanted Mois to stay in the night court with him forever. Likely he'd eventually propose so it wasn't exactly a lie. "Mois, the human girl."

Chatter began amongst the crowd. Kululu sighed.

"Say anything against my choice on bride and I'll kill you. Ku, ku, ku. Any complaints?" Kululu asked.

The crowd was suddenly silent.

"Good luck." They said. Kululu had weird tastes. They couldn't really be mad at him for being a weirdo. He had always been one after all.

Kululu smiled, grabbed his bags and left.

* * *

Now that he was no longer worried about a coupe happening in the night court, he could continue his journey along the plains to the summer court.

He wasn't too worried about the trouble Mois could get in there. After all the summer court was one of the few courts that he actually knew the high lord of personally.

 _At least I hope they haven't changed high lord's in five hundred years._ Kululu thought to himself. He supposed that he maybe should have told Mois a bit about the personality of the summer court high lord. Right now she was going in blind.

Back when the courts had had meetings of the high lords every ten years, Kululu had talked to the summer high lord the most. He enjoyed pranking him. Although the two were on terrible terms, Kululu at least knew him.

 _I always made sure he had such a miserable time. Geez, he hated me. I bet he threw a power once he heard I was out of power. Ku, ku, ku._ Kululu realized that the summer court high lord would probably be looking for any opportunity to get revenge on him for his petty pranks. After all Kululu made sure he had more of a miserable time than humans.

 _Hope he's still in power. Even though Giroro hates me he was so easy to wind around my finger._ Kululu recalled. The name of the summer court high lord during his time had been Giroro. He hoped nothing had toppled him from power.

 _Giroro's a big dummy though. He's the biggest idiot of a fae I've ever met, so Mois might be safe in his court. She could definitely outsmart him._ At the same time though, Kululu didn't want Mois's quest to be completely successful. There would be huge issues if the red queen were slayed, she was the ruler of the fae world and by living in the castle hidden in fae lands, she fueled the lands to be peaceful, to grow. The fae kingdom needed her there to live. If she was dead, all of the fae would die too. She was their guardian and they would all die if she were gone.

That and if Mois completed her goal of killing the red queen, she'd return to the human world. And Kululu didn't want that at all. He wanted her to stay with him in the night court forever.

 _When I see her I'll tell her how desperately I care for her. I'll ask her to be my wife and stay in the night court with me._ He just had to pray that Mois chose him over her people. She was the type of person who cared a lot about others, but he really wanted her to choose him over the good of all for once.

He wished he could be Mois's goal instead of killing the red queen.

* * *

Kululu finally made it to the summer court. It was brighter and hotter than the night court. The grass was green-ish yellow, the sun had a red-ish hue. All sorts of animals were everywhere.

The castle was magnificent and beckoning. Kululu wondered if Mois had made it there before him.

Not even paying attention to any guards and using his magic to distract them, Kululu walked past, forgetting to knock and pushing the large doors open to the main hall.

Just as he suspected the fae high lord known as Giroro was standing there. His hair was just as sickeningly golden as Kululu remembered it, his skin was dark and tan but still lean and sculpted like a fae's. His eyes were a piercing blue and he still had the scar across his face that he happily prided himself on.

His clothing was a deep crimson red, he wore tight leggings and a dark blue belt draped around his shoulders. He wore a golden crown on top of his head. In his hands he had a beautiful silver sword.

Mois sat on the floor, Giroro's sword was at the tip of her neck and his other hand was tugging on her hair.

He was about to execute her. Probably for trespassing.

"STOP!" Kululu yelled. Giroro glanced at him and he grinned broadly. His teeth were sharp, like a shark's.

"I'm glad to see you." Giroro said calmly.

"That's not what you usually say to me. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu put his hands in his pockets. "But I suppose that does do for a proper greeting after five hundred years."

Giroro grinned again, "If you're trespassing in my kingdom, I have reason to attack you. And you know how I love attacking other fae."

 _Ah yes. Giroro was always a big supporter of war between the fae nations. He found it fun. He always desired war, believing battle was the truest way of finding honesty in people._ Perhaps the summer court wasn't the safest place to be. After all Giroro was very violent even if he did value honor.

"Hey, I just came for a friendly visit. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu lied, "Aren't you happy to see a bud like me?" This was the best way to keep things peaceful, and make sure that the night court wasn't attacked.

Giroro tugged on Mois's hair again, forcing her to look up. She looked angry that she had been caught and attacked almost immediately. She glanced at Kululu but didn't say anything.

"Is this human one of yours?" Giroro asked curiously, "If she is, and she trespassed on my lands then I have reason to attack the night court."

 _Ah, so that's why he was happy to see me. He thinks there's a connection between me and Mois. That Mois belongs to me._ Kululu wondered how to answer, to save Mois's life and his court.

"I'm just a human! I don't belong to any court. I'm no spy." Mois was the one who answered her affiliation.

"Ah." Giroro looked a bit disappointed that he couldn't attack Kululu. "Then you're just a trespasser." He whistled for a moment, bringing his sword away from Mois's neck. "Fine. Then you will be mine. The punishment for your crime of trespassing is that you now belong to me."

"Wait!" Kululu hurriedly said. He bit his lip, trying to think about how to negotiate with Giroro. "I'm sure you have something you want from me, maybe a trade could be in order? The human for a favor from me. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu knew offering a favor was risky business.

Giroro frowned. "The only favor I want from you is an apology for all the hard times you've put me through. And I doubt that would be an honest apology."

Kululu laughed for a moment. That was true. He'd never give Giroro an honest apology. "I mean..." He tried to stop chuckling for a moment, "Of course, if that's what you want..."

"No." Giroro frowned, "I won't give her to you. And why do you want her anyway?" He eyed Kululu suspiciously. "Is she your spy after all?"

Kululu gulped. If Giroro realized that she was precious to him, he would use her for his revenge on Kululu. After all Kululu would do the same. "I owe that human girl a debt for something she did for me. I'll free her from you to free myself from my debt. Ku, ku, ku."

Giroro nodded. So even Kululu wasn't immune to the rules of paying back debts.

"I told you that there's no reason to pay me back!" Mois frowned, "I freed you from your debt. You don't have to be here, Kululu."

Kululu glared at her to keep quiet. "Quiet. I'm negotiating. Do you want to die?"

Mois quieted down.

Giroro thought for a moment, still holding Mois. He looked at her closely. "Well, she doesn't speak to you like she respects you. She clearly isn't from your court. And she does look like a human, so I suppose she belongs to no land. She's just a lost little human."

He thought about what to do with her.

"I told you, I came here completely peacefully. I don't want to attack you at all!" Mois pleaded.

Giroro nodded. "Fine. I'm not a barbarian after all. And I would hate for there to be rumors about the summer court being bloodthirsty. More than anything my court values honor." Giroro nodded. "So since you belong to no land I will challenge you. If you win, you're free to go."

Kululu tried not to sigh in relief. His negotiations hadn't worked, but Giroro was soft-hearted as usual.

"So I get my life if I win your challenge?" Mois asked, curiously.

Giroro nodded. "It's a little wager. But the alternative is true too. If you lose..." He grinned, "You're mine. You'll become a servant of the summer court for all eternity, unable to leave."

Mois looked a bit frightened at that idea.

Kululu walked up to her, as Giroro let her go, waiting for her to take his wager.

 _I bet he wants to imprison her instead of kill her because I showed up. He realizes she's useful to me._ Kululu thought. He put his hand on Mois's shoulder. They didn't have much time to talk,

"Don't take it." Kululu advised, "I'm a high lord. If it comes down to a fight, I'm sure I can take Giroro on." He whispered.

"He won't let me just walk away. And I didn't come here to fight him. I came for information." Mois glared at him.

Giroro waited for her answer.

"I don't really want to become a servant of the summer court." Mois twiddled her fingers, "But it seems I have no choice but to take your wager."

Giroro walked forward and grabbed her hand. He had a strong handshake as he shook it.

"Still, I have to try my hardest." Mois smiled optimistic. "I'm sure I'll win and be able to go free."

Kululu was glaring. He knew Mois was smart, but Giroro obviously had something up his sleeve to make a wager like this.

Giroro was smiling. He then laughed loudly. "You've been the first human I've seen in a while in summer court lands. But I have to tell you- the last human that challenged me lost against me in a battle of strength." He grinned.

Mois's eyes twinkled. "I don't want a challenge of strength then. It's clear that you're quite muscular and strong. I'd lose immediately."

Giroro smiled, "You're a witty human. But at the moment you are also a guest in my court since you've taken the challenge. I will allow you to choose what sort of battle you want. What sort of challenge."

Kululu didn't even have to advise Mois as she answered.

"A battle of wit." Mois responded quickly.

 _Thank god. Giroro's as dumb as bricks. She'll easily win._ Kululu smiled

Giroro smiled. He had been expecting that. "Fine, your challenge will be to figure something out. You will be allowed freedom to run around and look throughout my court as you please for one week. Don't worry the summer court is probably nicer than the night court. We treat our guests honorabley." He glared at Kululu.

"Hey! I treated her nicely too! Ku, ku, ku." Kululu retorted.

"Yeah, you probably tried to barbecue her alive. I know you like torturing little humans like her." Giroro rolled his eyes, almost thankful he had found Mois before Kululu could retrieve her.

"Am I allowed to stay for the week too?" Kululu asked, "I'm not leaving the human alone."

Giroro sighed, "Fine. You can stay too. We have some catching up to do after all. Last I heard your own court had imprisoned you and some terrible fae named Saburo had usurped you. I'd like to know what happened to him if you're running around." Giroro glared.

Kululu chuckled, "He's dead."

"Good riddance." Giroro sighed.

"Um..." Mois tried not to eavesdrop. "What is my challenge? What am I trying to find out?"

Giroro looked ashamed that he had almost forgotten to tell her. "I want you to find out what happened to the human who challenged me last. Finish the story I told you. There are three items- clues hidden throughout the palace that if you're smart will tell you more of the story. If you can not give me the correct answer about what happened between us, you will be my servant."

Kululu scoffed. That didn't sound too hard. If she lost against Giroro he either killed or imprisoned her. But at the same time it sounded like it was more than that.

Mois nodded.

"Don't help her Kululu." Giroro glared, "I know you'll try to use your awful fae powers or your genius to figure it out. But she's got to figure this out on her own. The challenge will began tonight. I'll lead you to your rooms."

Kululu wasn't too pleased. Although he wanted to have faith in Mois, he didn't have time for this. And it would be much easier to help her.

She ignored him as they were lead to their rooms.

* * *

Mois and Kululu of course had separate rooms. They weren't anywhere near each other. And although Kululu wanted to leave his room to ask Mois why she was trying to kill the red queen and try to whisk her away from the summer court, he was guarded by several guards.

Eventually Kululu was able to find Mois the next day, looking around the palace for some sort of human items.

"I know Giroro told me not to help." Kululu tried to whisper, "But I could you know. We could run off-"

"I'm not leaving. I have business here." Mois frowned, "You shouldn't have followed me. Didn't you get my letter?"

Kululu nodded. He wanted to talk to her, but she sounded distant from him.

"I'm sorry. I thought you probably didn't want to come with me. You belong in the night court. I was meant to do this." Mois whispered, "Please don't question it."

Kululu looked annoyed at her inability to tell him anything else, "Fine." He growled, "But I am going to advise you on finding those three clues whether you like it or not. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois looked down. "I don't have any leads. I just know that the human's story with Giroro didn't end after she lost. After all if it ended there would be no point looking into it."

"Maybe there's a memento somewhere in the castle." Kululu suggested, "If its such an important story to Giroro he would have kept a memento."

Mois's eyes brightened. She gave Kululu a hug. "I think I've seen something indistinguishably human!" She hurried away, but Kululu followed her.

Eventually they came to the great hall again. Above the high lord of the summer court's throne there was a sword in a glass case. It was a rusty sword, not forged with fine metals or magic. The hilt was normal, average like a human's sword would be.

"There. That must be one of the items." Mois smiled, "Oh thank you so much!" She clapped at Kululu.

"But what does it mean?" Kululu approached the sword in the glass case. His eyesight was pretty bad, but he could see faint letters on the bottom of the case. He took off his glasses to clean them.

Mois looked at the sword and read the words aloud. "The sword of the human who won a second challenge with the high lord Giroro."

"A second challenge? But I thought she lost in a battle of strength." Kululu scratched his head, "Ku, ku, ku. Did he think she was cute or something and wanted her to try again?"

"Maybe he was impressed by her spirit. But what was the challenge?" Mois wondered. She narrowed her eyes as she examined the sword. It had a hint of blood on it, fae blood. "To kill him?" She wondered aloud.

She tried to translate more fae words on the case. "The human was given three months to kill him for her freedom. Or else she would die."

Kululu was silent. _Most likely the human lost the second time because Giroro isn't dead. So he must have killed them, letting them stay as an honored guest for three months and then ending their life._

"What's more to tell about this story?" Kululu yawned, "Seems pretty obvious to me that they lost."

Mois didn't seem too sure. It didn't seem like this story had ended yet.

* * *

Mois was scurrying all over the castle, looking for anything that might have looked human. Kululu followed her when he could.

Eventually during dinner, she found the second clue. A handkerchief in the middle of the table.

"I'm telling you that you can eat!" Giroro reassured, "My fae don't relay on trickery. This food won't imprison you in my kingdom. I'm not a mischievous trickster like him." He pointed to Kululu.

"Ku, ku, ku." Kululu shrugged.

Mois wasn't listening. Instead she stepped onto her chair and crawled onto the table.

"That's a little weird..." Kululu trailed off. Giroro was silent as she crawled to the handkerchief grabbing the second item.

It was a baby blue color. "This is the second clue? It smells like a child's and the designs on it remind me of the human village."

Giroro gave a small smile and nodded. "It's up to you to decipher what it means."  
Mois closed her eyes and held the handkerchief close to her heart. The color, the designs reminded her of someone...She couldn't put her finger on it.

"Fuyuki..." She realized. It reminded her of the husband of the high lady of the winter court. The little alien designs were something that had been all over his walls.

Giroro looked confused. "Well, you're completely wrong. I know the fae named Fuyuki, he's one of the lord's of the winter court. That handkerchief belonged to the human I dueled, not him."

"So then the human must have been looking for Fuyuki!" Mois smiled brightly figuring things out.

 _Wait. She's right. Fuyuki was a human at one point, stolen from his world. He must have had family at one point who might have gone here to look for him._ Kululu smiled to himself. Mois was putting together pieces that he might have never considered. That Fuyuki had people that cared about him.

"Maybe the handkerchief belonged to the human's baby brother?" Mois suggested "And from the look of the sword they were a warrior. They probably came to the fae world to look for their lost brother. Being trapped here for three years, they never stopped thinking about their brother, never lost their spirit."

Giroro smiled. "I don't know if you're right about the Fuyuki thing...I'll have to look into that more. But you're right. The human I dueled came here to slay all fae so that she could reclaim her little brother. I trapped her here but she never lost her spirit." His eyes twinkled in nostalgia. "So half credit." He shrugged, "Still not sure her brother was Fuyuki."

"Slay all fae?" Kululu laughed, "Ku. Well that didn't happen. What a lame quest."

Giroro glared at Kululu.

Mois was quiet. "...Slay all fae, huh?" She looked at the handkerchief, "I wish she could have just found her brother instead."

"Me too." Giroro agreed, silently. "You have one clue left. And it's the most difficult to decipher."

Mois nodded.

* * *

Giroro was right that it was the most difficult to find. Mois searched everywhere, and eventually it became the last day that she had to look.

And she still hadn't found anything. Kululu had tried looking while he could, when he wasn't trying to distract Giroro so that Giroro wouldn't get in the way, but Mois wasn't making any progress.

Eventually Kululu grabbed her by the arm while Giroro was sleeping. He dragged her outside.

"I'm not running away." Mois said quickly.

"I know. I just had an idea where you could look for clues." Kululu responded, "Ku, ku, ku. The human was a warrior girl who impressed Giroro with her spirit. He'd probably be the stupid type and offer to train her. To give her a fighting chance. So I brought you to the training grounds."

Mois looked around. She hadn't searched this place yet. Kululu sat on a bench as Mois desperately climbed up trees to scout around, moved training dummies and looked at the ground.

Eventually she found a spot in the castle wall that looked cracked. Kicking it, the rubble wouldn't fall.

"Allow me." Kululu offered, helping her anyway. He blasted the wall a bit.

Mois covered her mouth as a fae heart rolled out. It was no longer pumping but it was covered in veiney blood. It was shaped in the way that a fae heart would be. It wasn't human.

"She...She must have killed someone." Mois realized. She backed away from the heart.

Kululu wasn't as squeamish. He picked up the heart and examined it, squeezing it a bit and being sure to get close. "Is that your answer?"

"She escaped after murdering someone." Mois nodded, "That must be what happened."

"It's a replica. It's not real." Kululu explained, "Ku, ku, ku." Without him she would have been stumped by this clue, "A pretty good replica though. Obviously made with magic." Only someone as smart as him with such an eye for details would be able to tell it was a replica. "Must be a metaphor. She took someone's heart but not literally."

Mois was confused as she moved forward. "So then he killed her? No...That can't be it. This represents a fae's heart. Or more accurately Giroro's."

Kululu clasped Mois's hand. "I have all my powers back. Sometimes fae items have strong memories associated with them. Perhaps I can stir out the memory with my magical power." Cheating wasn't off limits to him after all.

"You would do that?" Mois asked thankful that Kululu was with her.

Kululu nodded. "Anything to get you out of here so we can return home."

Mois didn't comment on the fact that he had called the night court home. Both their homes. She didn't belong there, but she wondered if Kululu wanted her to come back with him. She was almost too embarrassed to ask.

Kululu closed his eyes and plunged into the memory of the fake heart. With Mois's hand on his, she was able to see what he saw too.

* * *

They both didn't know how long ago it was. But they were floating in the training grounds as they looked at Giroro standing in front of a human girl. They couldn't see the human girl's face but her hair was bright pink and tied up in pigtails.

"It's the final day of my challenge. If you don't kill me by the end of the day you'll die." Giroro instructed. He wasn't holding any weapon. He just looked sad, tired. "We could make a new bargain though. There's no reason you have to die, I know the challenge was unfair. How is a human ever supposed to beat a fae?" He moaned.

"I can still take you." She hissed. "I'll never give up for as long as I live."

"But I don't want to kill you! I'm not going to! I'm the high lord what I say goes." Giroro yelled, "You could stay here, forever. I'll let you do as much as you want. The summer court could be your home. I'll be by your side, we could continue to train together every day." His voice was soft, it was clear Giroro was in love with her. "Please..." He bent down on one knee, he bowed to the human. "Be my queen."

"I may not be stronger than you physically but I'm stronger than you in spirit, Giroro." The human seemed to smile. Her hand went out in a finger gun, "Bang!" She said to herself.

Giroro looked surprised. She hadn't done anything. "What was that for?"

"I've killed you." The human told him.

"No you haven't." Giroro cried.

"I've killed the person you once were. That counts, doesn't it?" The human smiled again. "You're in love with me, you would never hurt me. I've impressed you because despite our magical differences I've reached heights you never thought I could do. Heck, you even just proposed to me! You want me, a human, to rule your kingdom. Has anyone heard of anything like that?" The human smiled.

"It's not so weird a fae falling in love with a human. You're perfect, of course I'd fall for you. You're amazing." Giroro got up. "But you're right. You killed the person I once was. So you've won."

The human walked up to him. She was dressed in battle armor. "That's sweet." She pulled Giroro down and kissed him on the lips. "I already kind of knew that though." She teased, "I mean after the first month when you started wooing me in those...less than successful ways, I kind of figured it out."

"Less than successful?" Giroro looked shocked.

"Giroro, you woke me up in a weird feathered outfit and started dancing." The human girl laughed and pulled him down for another kiss.

Giroro happily kissed her back, picking her up and kissing her like she was the only person in the world. He didn't care that she was a human.

"Oh and then how about the time you tried to tell me you loved me and then flubbed up saying you loved potatoes instead. Or the time-" The human stopped teasing him as Giroro kissed her neck. She moaned in satisfaction.

"So you'll stay? You'll stay with me?" Giroro asked.

The human girl's voice became sad. "You know I can't do that. I have a job to do. I have to slay the queen of the fae, remember? Then and only then will the fae kingdom fall. I'm a warrior and I've started a war. And no matter what I will win this." She pulled away from Giroro.

"I'm sorry. I've spent too much time here. Now that I'm free I have to go." The human girl told him.

Giroro held her hand as she pulled away.

"Good-bye. And thank you for teaching me so many things about the fae world. I love you." She told him.

"I love you too. Come back soon." Giroro begged. "I don't care if you topple the entire fae kingdom. I'll be by your side."

The human girl laughed. "Thanks."

The memory ended.

* * *

Kululu and Mois found themselves holding the heart again. Both were very silent.

Kululu glanced at Mois. _It was just like me and Mois._ He realized. A high lord falling for a human, and a human on a quest to slay the fae queen or as they now called her, the red queen.

"I don't know how long ago the memory was." Kululu confessed.

"Five hundred years ago." Mois spoke in almost a whisper. "The trees were smaller than. From what it looks like they're about five hundred years old now."

Kululu nodded. Made sense. So around the time that he had been imprisoned. Probably why he hadn't heard about a human on a quest to slay the fae queen.

Mois was very quiet. "So...Giroro loved her. And she won."

"I know. It's odd to think about the fact that Giroro fell for a human." Kululu nodded. It wasn't too different than him. And that wasn't something he wanted to find similar. "But it looks like he did."

"Then we have the answer to the mystery." Mois's voice wasn't excited. It was just calm and thoughtful.

"Let's go tell Giroro before he imprisons you here." Kululu suggested.

Mois and him walked off to find Giroro.

* * *

"The human girl went to your kingdom to slay all the fae, for her younger brother that was captured." Mois recited the story, "She lost the first challenge of strength, but you challenged her again to kill you in three months time. She didn't kill you per say, but you fell in love with her. She killed the person you once were and you let her go."

Giroro tapped his fingers on the arm side of his chair listening. "Correct." He eyed Kululu, "But I don't think you came upon this answer on your own."

"Mois won your stupid challenge. So let her free!" Kululu growled.

Giroro noticed Kululu calling Mois by her name. Of all the times that he had spoken to Kululu, he usually called Mois 'the human' and not by her name.

Giroro stood up quickly. "But you must be punished for exploiting my trust. You definitely helped her." He grinned, "I don't like using some of my psychic abilities against my better judgment, but I value rules above all else. And you broke them."

"What are you going to do with him?" Mois held onto Kululu's arm and stepped in front of him as if to protect him.

With telekinesis, Giroro swatted her away, towards the wall. She crumpled against it falling to the ground.

"Mois!" Kululu was momentarily distracted.

He walked forward to Kululu and put his hand on his forehead. Kululu froze as Giroro's power – the real power of a high lord like himself froze him to the spot. It wasn't anything like Momoka or Fuyuki's power. It was stronger.

"I've been wanting to prod your disgusting little mind for a while. I just never had an excuse before." Giroro grinned. "To keep to the punishment of trust, I will force you to reveal one secret that you've never told anyone. Some sort of truth that you told as a lie."

"I never knew you wanted to get inside my head, Giroro. How sweet~. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu teased. "If you wanted to know more about me, all you had to do was ask me on a date. Oh wait, seeing as you're only interested in dumb humans..."

Kululu's mind twisted as he felt Giroro's hand prod into the deep inner reaches of his mind.

 _I have to be smart about this._ Kululu realized. There was one secret he desperately didn't want Giroro to reveal to Mois, not the fact that he was in love with her, but the fact that in the beginning he had plotted to sacrifice her to the red queen so that his curse would be broken. That he had wanted the red queen to eat her heart.

She would hate him forever if she knew.

So instead he willingly spurted out another secret. To hide his real secrets. "Energy is transferred through touching, any sort. It doesn't require lip contact. I just said kissing was the only way to transfer energy because I was a perv. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois covered her mouth turning red and looking shocked. "W-what? You mean that entire time I could have just touched you! We didn't need to kiss?" She had just gotten up, but her legs had fallen under her in shock.

She looked like she had never heard anything more shocking.

Giroro looked confused and not satisfied in the least bit. "I...I don't understand...What? What does that even mean!" He tore at his hair. "You kissed the human girl...? Huh?"

"Ku, ku, ku. Sorry, Mois." Kululu apologized.

"I can't believe you never told me!" Mois looked like she wanted to go up and slap him. "You shouldn't have tricked me like that."

"At least my secret wasn't anything worse than a few kisses." Kululu shrugged.

"What do you mean anything worse? That is the worst!" Mois yelled.

"I told you I was wicked and a liar and a trickster. You were the one who never believed me. Ku, ku, ku. Hey, but at least you enjoyed kissing me! And I remember more than a few times us doing it for no reason at all-"

Mois turned red and waved her hands for him to shut up. She didn't want to talk about this any longer.

Giroro eyed him suspiciously. "You said that secret willingly. You're hiding something worse." Giroro for once used logic and his mind.

Before Kululu could stop him, he plunged into Kululu's mind again. Although Kululu tried to put up all his mental shields, Giroro plowed through them.

"Got it." Giroro grinned, "You were trying to sacrifice that human to the red queen- to give her as an offering so the red queen would grant you a favor..." He recited.

Mois looked shocked, but less shocked than the kissing thing. She had suspected that one at least a little bit. With the kissing thing she had literally no clue and idea. Kululu had just played on her original beliefs.

"Oh..." She was quiet. "I mean I suspected that you wanted to go to her to have me killed or something like that, but...I guess you could say, confirmation?"

Kululu's face contorted in grief. "I'm...I'm sorry." He could recognize the look of betrayal on her face.

He wasn't good with heartfelt apologizes, but for once he gave one. "I no longer wish to. I...I started learning more about you, caring about you. I would never ever want you dead now. I know that doesn't make up for it, but..."

Giroro cut him off as he got a weird look. He walked up to Mois and grabbed her arm. "I'll accept it."

"What?" Mois asked.

"The gift for the red queen. If you wanted her sacrificed I can make that happen." Giroro said quickly. He didn't look very remorseful. He hadn't fallen for this human after all.

"You know where the red queen is?" Mois didn't look like she was struggling.

"Oh? And when did you get so chummy with the queen of all fae?" Kululu asked. He was waiting for an opportunity to attack Giroro. No way would he just let Giroro have his way and take Mois. He didn't care if there would be a war.

"Probably while you were imprisoned. During your imprisonment I married the red queen." Giroro confessed. He flashed a fist at Kululu and Kululu saw a golden wedding ring.

Giroro smiled.

"You're...Married to her?" Mois was a little confused and shocked.

 _I thought he was in love with the human girl though. Ah...She must have died from old age or something or in the fight with the fae queen. He must have moved on and once the fae queen requested he married her._ Kululu realized. Things weren't boding well if Giroro had the red queen on his side. He probably had those iron soldiers as allies too. And Kululu couldn't take them on.

That and Giroro would take Mois to a place that Kululu didn't know of.

"Why? Why would you marry her?" Kululu asked.

"The red queen doesn't support the war with the humans and hurting them." Giroro confessed, "Neither do I."

 _Ah, so the rumors about her eating human hearts are wrong then. Maybe it was only fae children that she ate._ Kululu thought to himself.

"She only wants to make the fae fight." Giroro continued, "Causing chaos in our lands, outright war everywhere...And that's something I agree with completely." Giroro grinned, "Our courts shouldn't be aligned in peace. We should be fighting to see who's the best! She's someone who agrees with me completely."

A thought struck Kululu. If the red queen wasn't hurting humans, why did Mois have a problem with her? The human village should have been peaceful if the red queen was like that.

So then why was Mois so determined to slay her?

Giroro pulled Mois closer to him, his arm around her neck so he could crack it if she tried to leave.

Kululu moved forward, bolts of darkness hovering over his head ready to shoot at Giroro.

"Don't!" Mois said suddenly. "I want him to take me to the red queen."

"I won't let him sacrifice you." Kululu hissed.

"You were trying to sacrifice me." Mois pointed out, "Although...I know you've changed. But don't worry Kululu, you're not my guardian any longer. It'll be fine. Either I die trying my hardest, or I succeed. But there's nothing you can do about it."

Giroro pulled her away. She passed Kululu for a brief moment. Kululu reached up to her, caressing her cheek as if it was the last time he'd ever see her.

He couldn't let her be taken, but Mois seemed to be so calm about it.

She held Kululu's hand briefly having a friendly smile. "Good-bye, Kululu." She smiled. She leaned down for one moment, as Giroro moved his grip onto her waist so she wouldn't get away.

She gave Kululu one last kiss, looking down at him and giving him a kiss that was only supposed to mean good-bye. He didn't know if the wetness from the kiss were her tears or his.

He'd like to say her's because he didn't want to be that sappy.

It was a bit awkward for Giroro, but he let them share a tender good-bye kiss.

And then he carried her away before Kululu could stop him.

And Mois was gone.

* * *

 **New characters-**

 **Giroro-High lord of the summer court**

 **Please review. I think you can all guess who the human girl was that Giroro fell in love with.**


	9. Stand By Her Side

**The next chapter will be the last one. Things included in that chapter will be smut, finally, the end of this dilemma and fight, and just basically the end.**

 **Lots will happen that chapter so I'm not going to finish it today.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

Kululu threw himself at the floor, slamming his fists on the marble. Guards were around him, telling him he was free to go from the summer court, but Mois and Giroro were gone.

 _Is this karma? In the beginning of our quest I wanted this to happen. Mois being sacrificed to the red queen. But now it is the last thing I would ever want to happen to her._ He didn't want to get up. His face wasn't professional or what was befitting of a high lord.

Instead he was crying and sobbing. His eyes and cheeks covered in tears and his nose probably covered in snot. It was a pathetic display for a fae. Embarrassing.

He loved her. And now she was gone forever. He liked to think he was the smartest fae in the world, but he had no idea whatsoever where the red queen was, where her castle and kingdom was hidden.

Mois might have been strong. She might have been smart. She might have planned to be captured so she would kill the red queen, but Kululu had seen that the human Giroro had loved had wanted the same and failed. The fae queen was the strongest fae in the world, and Mois didn't stand a chance against her, despite how strong she was.

The fae queen didn't have any weaknesses. She could control iron at will.

 _Stop blubbering. Stop crying, Kululu!_ Kululu wiped his face and tried to get up. He never gave up, he was smart, he had plans.

Mois had always had clues and ideas as to where the red queen could be. Suggesting to search in the night court since the courts were connected. If he just listened to her for once, maybe he could find her. Maybe he could make things right.

He could still save her. If he played his moves right, went back home to the night court and listened to everything she had told him.

He was part demon. Although the fae queen was even stronger than him, maybe he could stand a chance. He could pay Mois back for defeating Saburo.

He would save her. He wasn't just going to let the girl he loved die.

* * *

Once he got back to the night court he realized he had no clue as to where he should actually start looking for the road to the red queen's palace.

 _I'm unfit to find her._ Kululu realized. The ruler of the fae lands had never interested him, he had never brushed up on any history at all about her.

But he was sure others had. _To save Mois, I have to ally myself with my enemies._

That meant people like Tamama and Keroro, who he had doubted had left his kingdom yet despite his threat to throw Keroro out. Tamama had had years to look around the night court. He was sure to know something and although Keroro was an idiot, he had a stunning amount of magical knowledge.

Kululu approached Tamama and Keroro who were chatting in his garden, still in his kingdom just like he had suspected.

 _Just like Mois, they might have picked up something that I didn't because they're human._ He didn't know if they'd be willing to aid him though. After all, he had spent a good portion of his life giving them reason to hate him.

"You're back. I thought you went looking for that human broad." Tamama hissed.

"She was kidnapped by the high lord of the summer court. Ku." Kululu kicked at a rock. "I need your help. She's in trouble, and I don't have the resources to save her."

Tamama laughed. "HAHAHA. Like I'm going to help her. We might both be human but she's a bimbo."

Keroro was more reasonable. "Sure I'll help! Mois was a really nice girl. She doesn't deserve to be in trouble. What do you need?"

Tamama glared. Keroro's desire to help Mois must have been the reason he hated her.

Kululu sat down. "Have either of you heard any rumors or legends on how to get to the red queen's castle? The queen of the fae lands? Mois has been taken there to be killed." Kululu honestly told them.

Tamama shook his head. "I'm not even lying when I say I don't know."

Keroro thought for a moment. "I'm sorry. I haven't heard of any rumors about that. I might be a wizard, but I don't know things like that."

Kululu looked disappointed. So just like he originally thought, they were just idiots.

Keroro's eyes brightened and he stood up. "But on my adventures I met someone who might know! He knows all sorts of rumors, legends and stories. And he's super nice and willing to help almost everyone. He did whatever I asked of him!" Keroro clapped.

"Send for him then, immediately. I'll give you my fastest birds to send him a message to come here." Kululu snapped his fingers and a bird made of darkness appeared.

Keroro quickly took some parchment out of his pocket.

 _Come to the night court immediately a human girl's been kidnapped named Mois. We need your help._

 _-Keroro._

"Why didn't you write a to?" Tamama asked, wondering who the letter was for.

"I forgot his name." Keroro replied honestly.

Kululu scrunched up his face. Likely this person wouldn't help them. But as soon as the bird flew off, it returned with a new letter.

 _All right. I won't let anyone be harmed. I'll do what I can to help. I'll be there in a few hours at max._

 _-Dororo._

The letter read.

"He says he'll help!" Keroro smiled.

Kululu read the letter again. Dororo...The name sounded familiar. Had he met the guy? He didn't remember.

This would be a problem. He probably had met him and been a terrible jerk to him. Likely Dororo wouldn't help them, but he had to just wait.

Right now Dororo was his only hope.

* * *

While they waited, Tamama acted annoying and Keroro asked idle questions about Mois, like how she had gotten captured.

Eventually Kululu did reluctantly admit that Mois had entered the fae kingdom to kill the red queen. Keroro and Tamama were humans so likely it wouldn't be as big a crime as it sounded like to fae.

"She's trying to kill the fae queen?" Keroro got an odd look and rubbed his chin. "That brings me back to the days. I used to accompany another human warrior that was on an epic quest to slay the fae queen." Keroro smiled.

"Ohhh! Are you going to tell us a story of your heroic bravery?" Tamama asked.

Keroro nodded.

Kululu rubbed his head. He didn't have time for this. He didn't want to hear about Keroro's lame quest.

 _I wonder though...Was it the same human girl that Giroro fell in love with? Or is this common that humans try to kill the fae queen?_ Kululu pretended not to listen.

"I was her partner in her quest. We thought it would be better to enter the fae world together than alone. It was safer. Back then I was just someone learning to become a wizard and she was a young warrior on a quest to save her brother. She hired me for protection so that she could eat fae food. That was the only spell I knew at the time, how to disenchant things." Keroro admitted.

"Was her brother stolen by the fae?" Kululu asked curiously.

"Yes. Her brother had been stolen away when he was very young. She had looked for him and trained until she was an adult so she could go retrieve him." Keroro explained.

"Back then it was a time of peace within the fae kingdom. They weren't fighting as much, there wasn't so much chaos. Instead the fae liked to pillage the human villages and there was more of a war with the humans. It was a long time ago, almost five hundred years ago." Keroro explained.

 _The time line matches up. She must have been the human Giroro fell in love with. I never knew I would hear about her again._ Kululu looked up.

Five hundred years ago. That wasn't exactly the time he had been imprisoned. It had been more like four hundred if he remembered. But of course, he hadn't counted the years, so he could be wrong. Keroro and the human girl's epic quest must not have been that big of a thing. He hadn't heard about it after all.

"You two weren't together were you?" Tamama asked jealously.

Keroro laughed, "We argued almost constantly. She treated me like her baby brother and picked on me a lot. But through our troubles we became deep friends, we really cared about each other and trusted one another when it came down to it." He admitted, "We got a lot of information on the fae queen and learned about her, and my friend decided it would be best to kill her instead of all the fae high lords. I'm sure she figured out to find her, but I've since forgotten." Keroro laughed.

Kululu glared at him angrily. _It would be much easier on me if you listened and weren't such an idiot!_

"We got in a big fight though at one point. We split up after that and I lost touch with her. I went to the winter court to gather information and she went to the summer court." Keroro looked sad that he had lost contact with his friend.

"What happened after that?" Tamama asked.

"I stayed with the high lord of the winter court for a while. Made new friends. His name was Fuyuki, he was kind. He let me read a lot of his books on magic and I became the amazing wizard you know today. During my stay in the winter court I found the fountain of eternal youth and became the ever young person I am today! Then I went back to the winter court and stayed with Fuyuki honing my skills for 100 hundred years." Keroro smiled.

Kululu was done listening the story was boring now.

"Kululu will actually know the next part of the story. I went looking for my friend and went into the night court. I met you Tamama and cursed him." Keroro smiled at the good memories, "Then I went back to the human world, collected figurines called gundam and became very wealthy. That was most of my life." He smiled.

"But the point of the story was that the human who was trying to kill the fae queen started your journey. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu pointed out, "Too bad she failed her goals and you lost contact with her forever."

Keroro looked sad at that knowledge. He didn't talk and chatter anymore.

* * *

A few hours had passed and Dororo finally arrived at the night court. He looked a bit fearful of being back at some place that he himself had called hell, but he wasn't just going to let a human be exploited and hurt.

He would face his fears to save an innocent.

"Ah. It's you!" Kululu realized as he greeted Dororo. This was bad. He had kicked Dororo's butt and almost killed him. He had also forced Dororo to relive his trauma's. Likely Dororo wouldn't help.

Dororo narrowed his eyes. "Demon." He hissed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm high lord of this place and the person requesting your help. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu admitted.

Dororo looked like he was just about to turn around. "Get someone else."

"Wait!" Keroro stopped him, peering over Kululu's shoulder. "A human girl, a nice one is in trouble. The red queen is going to execute her!"

Dororo's eyes lit up. If there was one person he hated more than Kululu it was the red queen. "Your human companion?"

Kululu gave a stiff nod. "P-please...I'm out of options. You have a fine eye for detail, for figuring stuff out. I need to figure out how to get to the red queen. To save Mois."

Dororo thought for a moment. Kululu was a terrible person, but he had seen that he had a soft spot for the human girl he traveled with.

He sat down for a brief moment. "Get me some tea. I'll think about it."

"Tamama, get him some tea-" Kululu didn't have time.

"No you. If you want to prove to me that I should help you, act like I am your guest. You will treat me with respect." Dororo ordered.

Kululu grit his teeth. He didn't have time to waste though. _Maybe I can put something disgusting in the tea. No, that will make him hate me more._ "What kind?"

"Jasmine." Dororo responded. "Come back quick if you want me to listen to you.

Kululu left quickly. He'd make the damn best tea Dororo had ever had, if Dororo wanted to be like this.

* * *

Dororo sipped his tea and listened to Kululu's demands. Truthfully, Dororo had nothing against Mois, he liked the girl and he was more than willing to help her. He just wanted to put Kululu in his place before he agreed to help him. To see Kululu actually be a good person.

"So you want me to figure out how to get to the red queen's palace through the night court." Dororo said softly. Although he hadn't heard any rumors about the fae queen being the ruler of the light court and the light and night court's being connected, he didn't doubt it.

Mois must have heard a story he hadn't.

"I do not wish for Mois to be murdered. And my skills of seeing past illusions are unrivaled." Dororo confessed. "I can see past any illusion at all."

"Oh yeah?" Kululu didn't really believe Dororo. He was a noble, but Dororo didn't seem that tough. Why should Dororo be able to see through illusions better than he could. "Prove it, prove that it's unrivaled."

"For a brief moment I saw that the human you were traveling with had silver hair. Although I thought that it just looked silver in the moonlight, thinking back on it it was clear that it was an illusion. I suspect, and this is just a suspicion...That she's using a glamor far stronger than any fae's I've ever seen. Something to disguise herself from even fae." Dororo told him, "Because the moment I saw it, it disappeared like she was steadying it again."

Kululu was shocked for a moment at that suspicion. That was just so out there and out of this world, so surreal.

"I wonder if she's a wizard like me." Keroro spoke aloud, "Some wizards have shape shifting magic."

"I suspect there's something more than that." Kululu thought. It was a mystery something for later. "But I don't have time to think about it, it doesn't matter to me." He put it away in his mind for later, "Fine, I believe you about the illusion thing. Just...Go find her. Find the path to the red queen's castle."

Dororo nodded and hurried off.

* * *

Dororo worked tirelessly trying to look through the illusions in the night court. Kululu watched over him like a hawk, waiting for him to make a discovery.

Eventually he found a normal looking stone in the middle of the maze of the garden.

"Here." Dororo said with great certainty. He moved the stone a bit where there was a scratch mark on the ground of where it had previously been.

It was now completely dosed in the moonlight instead of just being half way.

The ground shook slightly and as if a portal a door appeared over the stone. The door was dark purple and when it was opened there was a forest pathway, twisted and unkept, to the red queen's castle.

"So...It was in the night court. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu realized. He felt relief that they had found it.

"Giroro may have reached the path by just wandering into the forest and letting the castle let him in, maybe it teleported him to the path with sheer luck." Dororo suggested. "Originally it was the court of light, so it would make sense that there was a path here."

Kululu nodded. "Anything to say about the red queen before I depart? Anything you know about her?"

"I've heard stories that she's not allowed to leave her castle." Dororo confessed. "Her spirit, her energy, fuels the land and keeps it in peace. That's why we all worship her. Without her we'd be dead, but she's killing us as well. As soon as she steps out of the castle, the land will be plunged into chaos without her."

Kululu nodded listening.

"I've also heard that no fae has ever met her. That she's completely alone in her castle, with only the iron soldiers she uses as weapons to guard her. She has a lonesome existence. Although that could be just rumors since you've told me that Giroro's married to her." Dororo shrugged. "I hate her, I wish she were dead for what she did to the spring court...But if she dies..."

"We'll all die. I got it, I won't kill her. I'll just retrieve Mois." Kululu promised. Although he liked chaos every now and then too, the fae queen was the guardian of their land and he couldn't let the realm die. If it came down to a choice between his home and Mois...

Well, she had been a lot nicer to him than the night court. He would probably save Mois and flee with her. They could go back to her human world.

"I'll stay here." Dororo offered. He shivered a moment. He probably didn't want to encounter the red queen's iron soldiers again. "I hope you retrieve your human."

Kululu nodded. "She'll be fine. Or else there will be hell to pay. I doubt the red queen has ever met a demon. Ku, ku, ku."

Dororo didn't wish him luck. He didn't really like Kululu. He did wave good-bye though as Kululu stepped onto the road and the door behind him disappeared with magic.

He was on the path to the red queen's castle. Finally, after all this time.

* * *

The road was long and twisted, like Kululu's personality. But Kululu felt no companionship with it.

 _This may be fae lands, but it feels so different from the land that I roamed in._ He could even feel that the magic pulsing in it was different, almost suffocating in a way.

Was this the land of the red queen? The light court?

He briefly wondered if Mois had felt this lost and alone when she had stepped into the fae kingdom, all by her lonesome. When she had entered his grove it didn't look like she knew where she was going.

Right now he was just as lost as her.

 _I never had any real desire to go see the red queen before Mois. I didn't care about our ruler, although I had heard rumors about her wickedness recently before my imprisonment. That's when she got the name of the red queen._ Kululu thought to himself.

He wondered how many fae put their ruler out of their minds and didn't want to go look for her just like he did. Fae were naturally not as curious creatures as humans. Mois, the human girl, and Keroro were probably the only ones who had ever asked where the red queen's castle resided.

Was curiosity a human trait? Or was it just something unique to some humans?

Maybe he should have been more curious to, asking questions. If he had accepted that he needed more knowledge instead of believing that he already had it perhaps he wouldn't have been so egotistical and people would have liked him more.

Kululu shielded his eyes as he exited the forest. The sunlight was bright, the sky was blue. There was a faint smell of the ocean even though he wasn't anywhere near the ocean.

He saw a small pool where the smell wafted from. It had sea salt and was like it's own ocean. Seagulls circled it.

The land of the red queen was topsy-turvy. It seemed all wrong, all weird. Some of the flowers had grown upside down. Things that were usually small were large and trees were extra tiny.

Even though he was a creature of magic, a fae, he didn't feel like he belonged here. It felt wrong being there. Like he should never have entered the place.

He could see the castle in the distance. It looked beautiful, fancy like a palace. But no sound was coming from it. Like no soul should dare enter it or live there.

Clouds covered the sky around the castle, they moved away to let sun shine on it rather quickly as Kululu found it.

"What a strange land. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu spoke to himself as he approached the castle.

"ARGH!" Kululu heard distant yelling. He dodged as Giroro's fist flew towards him.

"What are you doing here?" Giroro asked angrily as he was fuming. He had a large scratch on his chest, it was bleeding.

"I'm looking for the human you stole from me. I'm here to undo the wrongs I've done." Kululu answered.

Giroro glared down at him. "Your human sacrifice slipped away the moment we entered this land. I've been trying to catch her ever since."

Giroro sat down for a moment tired, "Didn't expect her to stab me with some iron that she had concealed. Thank god the red queen is immune to iron." He rubbed his head, "Still that human's given me a headache. She'll probably get lost in this land, but I don't know what she's planning."

"To kill the red queen." Kululu accidentally slipped out. He said it like it was simple, but Giroro's expression became one of horror.

 _So she was still planning to kill her. She got this far, why should she give up so soon?_ Kululu didn't know where Mois had hidden any iron, but she needed to know the red queen was immune to that sort of stuff.

"I'm going to stop her though." Kululu didn't know why he was reassuring Giroro. He didn't really care about the red queen's life even though it was for the best that she didn't die. "Mois will die facing the red queen and trying to kill her. The red queen is the most powerful of all the fae after all. And I can't let that happen."

Giroro stood up, he was shaking. "I don't want anyone to try to kill the red queen! I love her!" He confessed, honestly.

Kululu rolled his eyes. Giroro was way too prone to falling in love. First some dumb human girl and then the ruler of all fae. He wasn't sure how Giroro had managed to win her over, much less meet her. A blind date wouldn't have worked after all.

"She's evil, corrupt. You know she destroyed the spring court, right? And ordered the extermination of the fall court. She was working with Saburo to destroy everything. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu reminded Giroro, "I thought you valued honor. Is war really that important to you that you would fall in love with anyone who started it."

Giroro was shaking. "I know that. I know that she's hurt so many fae. That she's evil and corrupt. She's hurt people much more violently than she ever would want to, coating them in blood granting her the name of 'red queen' or the worse one 'the mad queen'" Giroro shivered, "But it's not her fault!" He defended.

"Oh? You going to apologize saying it was an accidental extermination? She didn't mean to kill people?" Kululu asked, glaring at Giroro.

"She kills people easily. She threw our land into chaos. But it's the power that's corrupting her. It's living in that castle that's driven her mad. She wasn't meant to be like this." Giroro's eyes were sad, as if he was mourning the red queen.

Kululu was confused. _The power's corrupting the red queen?_ He remembered Saburo. Saburo hadn't been born into power and tried to become high lord and he had been driven mad with a lust for power, and had hurt so many people in the night court. Even worse than Kululu had. "But wait, the red queen should be accustomed to her power. She's born into it. She was meant to rule our lands as the fae queen-" Kululu was confused. This didn't sound right. He grabbed Giroro by the collar. He needed an explanation.

 _Unless..._ He thought to himself, _Something like whoever kills the fae queen becomes the next fae queen. That would mean the human that Giroro loved was successful and killed the fae queen and became the next one. That would mean the same thing would happen to Mois if she killed the red queen, and she would go mad with power too!_ Kululu realized. It was just a theory, but it sounded pretty right.

He felt dread boil in his stomach.

Giroro gave up fighting against Kululu. He was panicking too much at the idea of anyone killing his love.

"I want to protect her no matter what. I love her. I don't care what she's become." Giroro confessed. He slowly looked Kululu in the eye, "If you try to remember, the fae queen wasn't always called the red queen or the mad queen."

Kululu nodded. He remembered that. Fae lands used to be peaceful. The fae weren't fighting amongst each other.

"So the person currently in power isn't supposed to be in power?" Kululu asked, he clenched onto Giroro's shirt tighter as if he was going to throw him somewhere. "The red queen took the previous fae queen out."

Giroro slowly nodded. "Natsumi..." He used the red queen's name, "Never wanted this to happen. She never wanted to rule fae lands. She just wanted to defeat the fae, stop them from hurting humans. But that castle changed her. Her mind...It's gone."

"Your human girlfriend?" Kululu asked quietly.

"We didn't know this would happen. You have to believe me. I trained her as best as I could to take out the fae queen. I didn't know it would destroy her in the process! She had to go alone, but...I've regretted it ever since. I've stayed by her side despite what she's done to make it up to her. I love her even if she's so different. She'll always be my Natsumi, even if she's evil." Giroro looked down in shame that he had helped the red queen's crimes.

 _He stayed by her side even after all of that._ Kululu realized. Giroro really was a sucker, desperately in love with a human girl.

 _Will I be like that if Mois manages to kill Natsumi? But I can't let Mois lose herself like that._ He tried not to think about Saburo, how different how heartless he had become.

He didn't want Mois turning into Saburo. He didn't know if he could stand by her side if she hurt him the way Saburo had.

He had to save her before that happened. Warn her before it was too late.

He let Giroro go, and the two of them for very different reasons hurried to the castle. And the throne room where they were both sure Natsumi and Mois would be.

* * *

Giroro and Kululu managed to charge in around the same moment, Mois did. She must have been planning for her attack.

Mois stood in front of Natsumi the red queen glaring at her.

The red queen sat in her throne, she seemed hollow almost lifeless. Extremely skinny and tall, her skin a sickeningly pale as if the fae blood inside her that was not meant to be was poisoning her.

Her hair was the last thing of hers that looked how it was supposed to be, long and pink and lush it trailed down to her waist.

Her eyes were brown and hollow, it looked like she had a blank expression on her face. She wore a fancy fae dress, adorned with all sorts of hearts and still covered in splashes of blood- Giroro must have brought people to execute in front of her before.

She didn't look much like the human from Giroro's memories. She was hollow, almost sickly. Her smile was wicked and evil.

She really did look like the mad queen. Like she wouldn't kill to amuse herself, but to survive, to eat, to become more powerful.

Kululu was once again reminded of Saburo when looking at her. Although her body was much different the fae blood poisoning her and turning her fae, despite her body looking like she rejected the process, her face was very much like Saburo's a constant lust for power plastered to it.

"Natsumi-" Giroro said hurriedly. Apparently he was the only one who saw past the sickness that had stricken her. He was about to move towards her, to hold her, but the fae queen put her hand up to stop him.

She looked at her wedding ring and an almost human expression passed her face. Perhaps it was the only thing keeping her happy, and back to this world.

It looked like the only one she wouldn't hurt was Giroro. He was the only thing she remembered or recalled from her past life.

"You're back." Natsumi finally spoke, in a slow voice.

"Yes, I'm back, don't worry. I'm here to protect you." Giroro said soothingly.

Kululu glanced past Giroro and realized that Natsumi wasn't looking at him when she was speaking. It was Mois she was now glaring at.

Mois held an iron spear in her hands. Kululu hadn't seen it before. It resembled some sort of weird weapon, it had a crescent moon on one end and a weight on the other that looked like the moon. Like it was part hammer and part spear.

"Don't use iron on her, she's immune-" Kululu advised, "And don't attempt to kill her, you'll become the queen after her."

Mois didn't listen to him, she stepped forward pushing Giroro aside. This fight was between her and Natsumi.

"Yes. I'm back." She hissed.

"I'm surprised to see you. I thought I killed you last time." Natsumi's face drawled into a smile, a wicked one, like she was excited at the idea of killing Mois again.

Kululu glanced at Mois. It didn't look like she was wounded.

"You almost did. I shouldn't have let myself be tricked." Mois glared at her, "Things will be different this time."

"You probably haven't changed much in five hundred years." Natsumi told her, "I beat you last time, and I'll beat you again. I'm queen now."

"I won't let you cause this chaos!" Mois yelled, "I'll bring peace to the land and do what I'm supposed to. I'll take back _my_ kingdom, I won't let you cause anymore harm, Natsumi!" She declared.

"I wonder how strong you'll be in that terrible disguise. You look like a human. Was it your plan to trick me? Your eyes are the same as they were last time we met." Natsumi reminded.

A gust of wind surrounded Mois as she removed her glamor. Just as Dororo had told Kululu, Mois's hair was actually silver like moonlight. She was much shorter than she had been before, more petite and her skin was pale. Her clothing was sleek and purple with designs all over it.

And most importantly she was clearly fae. Her ears were pointed and her body had the perfect stature that all fae had, sculpted and lean like they were made of marble. Her shirt was backless so that she could easily let her wings come out on a moment's notice. She wore shorts instead of a skirt and long boots.

 _She's...She's been a fae this whole time?_ Kululu was shocked. So all that lecturing that he had done about fae she had probably tuned him out, pretending that she was human.

That was why she didn't emit a scent. She was covering it with a stronger glamor than he had ever seen.

 _She's the original fae queen._ Kululu realized. Natsumi had somehow usurped Mois, Mois had survived and her goal had been to take Natsumi out of power ever since, reclaim what she had once lost.

They weren't so different, she and him. He had been trying to get the night court back and she had been trying to get her castle back as well.

 _That must have been how she killed Saburo. Easily. After all she's the most powerful fae in all the lands._ Kululu calmed down.

Mois could take her power back. She wouldn't go mad.

Natsumi was going down.

Mois walked up closer to Natsumi. She was going to end her. She didn't even utter a prepare.

The two just faced off, ready to use all their magic until one of them was left dead.

* * *

 **Please review!**

 **Natsumi is finally in the story, called by name. Hurrah!**


	10. Downfall of the Red Queen

**Last chapter! I didn't put it off until later! Now the story is done!**

 **I wonder if I should work on my in universe stuff next that are mostly death fics, or another AU.**

 **I like AUs because they can be short, but I need to get some of my in universe stuff done.**

* * *

 **Five Hundred Years Ago**

Natsumi sat amongt the flowers on the ground of the summer court. The wind went through her hair as she smiled and looked at the beautiful summer court.

"You've got everything that you need?" Giroro asked her, "And I really can't convince you to stay?"

Natsumi shook her head. "I have to kill the ruler of the fae lands no matter what. I've heard once she leaves her castle the land will be plunged into chaos and start dying off, once she's not fueling it. It will be just the hit I need to destroy the fae."

Giroro nodded. "I agree." He sat down next to her. "I...I don't know what she's like though. I've never met her. I only started looking into how to get to her castle on your request. You have to get lose enough in the forest for it to embrace you and bring you to the castle on chance. Hopefully she'll choose you to go to her lands."

Natsumi nodded. "Heard anything about what she's like? It'll be easier to let her let me into her home if I can play on what she likes."

Giroro shook his head. "The only thing I know is that nobody's ever seen her before. She must be very lonely." He paused, "Good luck, Natsumi."

Natsumi and Giroro embraced and she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She'd be back soon hopefully.

* * *

Rumor and legend had it that fae were tricksters. So Natsumi didn't exactly know how to con a fae. She knew she had to keep her guard up.

Wanting to see the fae queen's castle desperately, she got lost, and trusted the forest completely. And eventually she found herself swallowed up by the land and in the fae queen's land.

Of course the doors opened immediately once Natsumi was in sight of the castle. A sweet looking fae girl clapped as she saw Natsumi heading towards her.

She jumped up and down excitedly. "A visitor! I never ever get visitors! How did you get here?" She didn't leave her castle, but she beckoned Natsumi in.

Natsumi kept her guard up but walked in. _Are...Are fae supposed to be this scatter-brained?_ She was suspicious of this girl, after all she had been in the fae lands for a little over two years now and she had never seen a fae this welcoming.

She had been all over.

The girl brushed off her clothing, and combed her hair quickly to look presentable, her smile was broad and bright. Although it had an air of honesty and naivety, Natsumi didn't trust it.

"Who are you? Why did you come here?" The fae asked.

"My name is Natsumi Hinata." Natsumi bowed. She knew she had to pretend she trusted the fae so that the fae would trust her. "I'm just a human traveler. I just wanted to meet the queen of all the fae..."

"Oh that would be moi. I mean me, Mois!" Mois clapped, she skittered in the air, her wings popping up and fluttering around as if she was floating. "I have a visitor! I'm so excited! Come in Natsumi, please come in! You'll be a welcomed guest in my castle for however long you want. I'd love to hear about your travels." Mois smiled.

She had never had a guest before, and although she was friendly, she was quite desperate for companionship and lonely. She hadn't yet learned not to trust someone blindly.

And Natsumi came in, closing the doors behind her.

* * *

Natsumi stayed in Mois's castle for a few weeks. She knew she had to plan perfectly. During her stay, she told Mois about her culture, what it was like to be human and about the human village she had come from.

Unlike other fae, Mois never was egotistical talking about how she was better than humans. Instead she was wide-eyed and interested in their culture, begging Natsumi to tell her the things she called fairy tales from her world.

Mois was so curious, gladly soaking up the information that Natsumi gave her.

Sometimes Natsumi felt bad for what she was planning for Mois, but she had to remind herself she was a warrior.

 _Fae are tricksters._ She repeated to herself. _She could be acting scatter-brained and naive to get you off guard._ Natsumi reminded herself. There were other worries too she had towards Mois, it was clear that Mois was quite lonely and she had heard stories of fae trapping humans just to amuse them.

She didn't put it past Mois that Mois would make her stay with her for all eternity to free herself from her loneliness.

"Do you know much about friendship, Mois? It's a give and take relationship. Completely mutual and trusting." Natsumi tried to structure to Mois that she and her were friends, to get the fairy to trust her.

"Friendship?" Mois looked confused. "I've never read about something like that." She sat down, "Please tell me about it."

And Natsumi told her all that she could about the magic that Mois thought of as friendship. At the end of her lecture, when she was sure Mois understood she smiled at the girl.

"We're friends, right, Mois?" Natsumi asked.

Mois giggled and smiled. "Of course we are." She hugged Natsumi tightly. "I'm so glad to have a friend like you."

Her wings were still out. Giroro had told Natsumi that fairy's rarely showed their wings because it was their weakest point and they didn't want to be vulnerable. But Mois seemed to be trusting enough to show her.

Natsumi didn't know whether she should consider striking her now or feel sorry for the poor girl.

 _Maybe in a different life, if she wasn't standing in the way of me reuniting with Fuyuki and punishing the fae who took him...If we were both human I'm sure we'd be friends._ Natsumi looked sadly at Mois.

She couldn't get weak about this now. She had come so far. Mois had to die. No matter how nice of a person she was.

* * *

It didn't take long after the conversation about friendship that Mois sat Natsumi down and told her about her powers and the castle.

"My body has some sort of soul bond with the land. It's been the same for everyone in my family who's been born and raised in this castle." Mois explained, "The land continues growing and there's peace between the fae as long as I stay in this castle."

Natsumi got an idea. _Maybe I don't have to kill Mois! Maybe I can just take her out of the castle!_ "So you've never left your own castle? Even to explore your lands?" Natsumi asked her.

Mois sighed. "I've always wanted to meet other people, to see the lands I protect, that I guard. But the rules are if I leave the castle for more than 6 hours the castle will feel empty and hollow, and likely pestilence will spread throughout the fae land. They'll die." Mois frowned. "I want to see the forest. But I'm doomed to never be able to leave."

She smiled though, "At least there's good though! I met you after all. Maybe people will start visiting me. You did."

Natsumi nodded. "Likely pestilence will spread? Do you not know?" She prodded Mois.

Mois looked apologetic. "Nobody's ever left the castle that long. So I don't actually know." She admitted. "But I expect that will happen. That's what I've been told."

"But you want to go anyway?" Natsumi smiled, "How about this then. I'll keep track of time for you and you can go out into the meadows and smell the flowers! I'll come get you when the six hour mark is close to finishing and you'll return to the castle before the land even realizes it." Natsumi suggested it.

Mois clapped. "Really? I can go out and see the meadow?" She was so excited. She started crying into her hands, she was so excited. "Okay! Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll go outside for the first time." She was brimming with honest excitement.

Natsumi pat her head. "I hope it's everything that you wanted it to be."

* * *

Natsumi packed a lunch for Mois before she went out on her expedition. All she packed was a snack of pomegranates.

She had heard time and time again that fae food trapped people in the fae kingdom. Well, it was time to reverse the situation. It was time for fae food to hurt a fae, to trick them for once.

Natsumi carefully inserted some sleeping medicine in the pomegranate. Keroro had given the sleeping poison to her. It would make the person who ate it sleep a week, which was much more appealing than killing the person.

"Here you go." Natsumi smiled at Mois, handing her a bag. "I packed you a pomegranate. Have you ever heard the human story about pomegranates?" She referenced the tale of Hades and Persephone.

Mois shook her head. "Tell it to me later?"

"Promise." Natsumi lied.

Mois smiled and skipped off ready to roll around in the grass and smell the roses. She could hardly contain her excitement.

And just as Natsumi expected, Mois naively placed her trust in her, ate the pomegranate and slept for a week.

Unfortunately for Natsumi, the castle didn't self-destruct like she expected. Once the six hours had ended, the walls and doors locked.

"W-what's...What's going on?" Natsumi asked as she tried to break the windows. The castle had a mind of its own- it's own soul.

Suits of armor and iron looked at Natsumi and turned as if they were alive. Filled with magic they grabbed her.

"W-wait!" Natsumi screamed, "Help!" She hadn't expected this. But the castle prodded into her mind- the magic of the fae land.

The fae land didn't want to die. And although Mois was the true ruler, it needed a replacement almost like a stone of the same weight. Since Natsumi was the only one in the castle it imprisoned her and made her the ruler.

 _You will be the new ruler. You will never be free of the fae lands. Of this castle._ A voice rang in Natsumi's head.

She screamed and cried but she could not go free.

* * *

For a week Natsumi wandered through the castle, no light shining on her, and trying desperately to escape. But it shuffled around, imprisoning her in smaller and smaller sections.

Natsumi had nobody except herself. And the loneliness and isolation of an entire castle being against her caused her to go mad, her screams were perhaps the last real things she had as the land tried to siphon off her human energy to fuel the fae lands and she felt like she was dying.

By the end of the week she wasn't herself. She had given up. She had accepted her loss and formed herself as a new person. She was no longer the Natsumi who had come into that castle. She was the ruler of the land- the red queen.

She didn't want to save humanity any longer. Her only wish was for chaos. Because she wasn't the rightful ruler she had gone mad with power and would soon plunge the land into chaos driving it into the ground.

"N-natsumi?" Mois asked hurriedly as the doors opened for the first time in a week. "I...I think I may have slept too long...Your pomegranates...They put me to sleep."

"I drugged you." Natsumi admitted. "You slept for a week. You've been cast aside, you're no longer the ruler."

Mois looked shocked. She shook her head. "No! I can't let the land die because I desired something more. Wait...You drugged me?" She looked shocked.

"I wanted you gone. Don't you understand, Mois? I was never your friend. It was all a ploy. You've been conned like fae con so much." Natsumi walked up to her as Mois sobbed.

 _Drink her blood. Only then will you be the true ruler._ The voice of the iron soldiers, the castle and the madness of her power rung in Natsumi's head.

Grabbing Mois before she could squirm away, Natsumi plunged her teeth into the girl's neck. Mois shrieked loudly.

"AHHH! Stop it! You're hurting me!" Mois screamed.

But Natsumi just drank, tearing off pieces of flesh to drink the rich blood. She would become a fae. And then she'd be the ruler of the land. The Natsumi that so many people had known was gone.

She hadn't drunk as much as she needed. She had drunk more than enough. Enough that Mois's blood was mostly gone, as the girl just screamed and shrieked.

"Good-bye, Angol Mois. And good riddance." Natsumi hissed, pushing her away once she was wiping off the blood from her mouth.

She let Mois fall to the floor, as she grabbed a sword to plunge into Mois's chest, Mois disappeared dispersing into the air.

Natsumi sighed, believing that the fae's life was gone. She was unaware that Mois had used the last of her power to disperse, teleporting away so that she could wait until she was strong again.

It took five hundred years until she was back to her full strength. Some of those years were spent in the human village being taken care of by a human who had found her and some were spent sleeping in the fae forest.

But Mois had plenty of time to remember how Natsumi had wronged her. To recall what feeling betrayed felt like. She had plenty of time to plot how she'd fix her foolish mistake of wanting more.

* * *

 **Present Time**

Kululu felt that things slightly made sense, Mois being a fae. Sure, he was very shocked. A little annoyed with himself that she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him the truth. _Makes sense why I always felt we weren't equal though, that she was better than me. She is! She's the ruler of all fae, including me!_ Kululu reminded himself.

He glanced at Giroro. What would Giroro do now that the rightful ruler was back?

"I know it would be for the best to take her out of power. But I have to stick by Natsumi's side. She's my wife and I love her, despite her crimes." Giroro headed off to Natsumi's side. He'd defend her against this intruder, despite Natsumi being the real intruder.

Mois no longer flew around the room happily. Instead she glared at Natsumi. Power generated in her hands and she blasted the magic towards Natsumi.

Natsumi shoved Giroro out of the way of the blast and dodged. She blasted something back.

Mois hit it away with her spear.

The iron soldiers surrounded Mois and Kululu, being on Natsumi's side. The castle had chosen her at the present moment after all.

Before Kululu could help Mois, the sheer force of energy blasted him aside. Both him and Giroro seemed completely useless in this fight, as if a powerful force was pushing them against the wall.

"Let me help!" Kululu tried to beg, but Mois didn't listen.

The ground ruptured as Mois flipped delicately away from Natsumi's blasts, using one end of her spear to balance herself, it was heavy. Twirling around the spear, she kicked Natsumi in the face.

Natsumi grabbed her leg using fire magic to burn at her leg. Mois grit her teeth.

"You're strong." She frowned.

"The castle has chosen me. The fae lands give me its power." Natsumi glared at her, "No matter how much natural power your blood has, I'll still be a little stronger than you. After all, I have your blood too. I drank it down."

Mois was getting completely beaten, but every time she'd get thrown to the ground, she would get up quickly out of determination. She was not letting Natsumi beat her no matter how battered and bruised she was.

Knocking the iron soldiers aside and swiftly hitting the arrows they shot at her away, Mois charged at Natsumi once again.

So many sparks of magic were exchanged between them.

"Natsumi's going to win." Giroro realized sighing with relief. "Mois's too injured and doesn't have enough power to beat her."

Kululu frowned. He couldn't move much, but he had to do something to help. _What can I do?_

He noticed when glancing at Mois, although she was bloody and bruised one thing shined through. Along her collar bone his name shined brightly, a tattoo. Despite the fact that she had been in a glamor the magic of their soul bond had gotten through it, and formed a marking on her body.

 _It's shining. My curse is broken but our soul bond is still in place._ Did that mean they could transfer energy? That he could take away her pain.

It was worth a shot. Mois had transferred energy to him so many times, given him power. Shouldn't he be able to do the same? Give her some of his energy and a power boost?

He could at least heal her up a bit.

Although the power of Natsumi and Mois's energy was strong, Kululu managed to crawl on the floor, gripping onto the tiles, slowly going towards Mois.

Mois became distracted once she saw him. "What are you doing? She'll kill you!"

Natsumi didn't notice him, instead she stabbed Mois in the arm with her sword. Mois bit her lip to not scream.

She was not going to give Natsumi the satisfaction of hearing her scream again.

"Our soul bond still exists, Mois. I can transfer you enough energy to beat her, or at least make you less in pain." Kululu told her, "Just give me this chance to give you power."

"Kululu..." Mois seemed doubtful. She jumped away from Kululu so that Natsumi wouldn't notice him. She wasn't focusing on him at the moment.

Kululu stood up, his legs were wobbly.

"You're distracted!" Natsumi yelled, stabbing her sword in Mois's abdomen, running her through.

"AHH!" Mois screamed in pain, coughing on blood. The iron spear in her hand disappeared, sinking back into her body.

Kululu caught her as she fell.

"I...I failed..." Mois looked so sad. She had worked so hard for this. "Do you think you can get away before she kills you?"

"You know that's usually my line when we get in trouble. I'm supposed to be the one protecting you. Remember I'm in debt to you? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu chuckled. Who knew he'd be the one constantly getting protected?

"You're not in debt to me. I freed you from it, remember? You don't have to be my guardian...I'm supposed to be the guardian of all fae, and that includes you." Mois would have bopped him on the nose if she could. But she smiled up at him.

"I love you, you know." He told her quietly. "Debt's really not the reason I stuck by you. It was to be with you."

Mois used as much strength as she could to put her arms around Kululu, without stabbing him with the sword in her gut.

Before Mois could stop him, Kululu pulled her into a tight kiss. He could feel the mark with her name burn on his skin, as he took away her pain and transferred it to him.

Her wounds suddenly appeared on him, all except the stab wound, he only felt like he was stabbed. He continued kissing her though, transferring as much power and energy as he had.

If she died, he would feel like he was dead anyway. The demonic energy he had, the fae energy, it was all hers.

Her eyes snapped open as Kululu fell to the floor. She pulled the sword out of her stomach with great ease and the energy from Kululu healed her wound.

"Thank you." She smiled. "I won't let you down." She promised.

Taking out her iron spear she glared at Natsumi once again. "You may have my castle and the fae lands on your side, but I have a friend- a real friend's energy! You could say, together as one?" Mois charged forward and blasted Natsumi with all the power she had, as queen of the fae, with the power of the night court and Kululu's own demonic energy. The end of her spear hit Natsumi and sent her flying through the castle wall.

The castle finally freed her, even the iron of the castle wasn't strong enough to hold a hit like that back.

Giroro went running after her as soon as he was able to stand.

"That's my Mois." Kululu smiled before he passed out.

Mois smiled as she let the castle's power surround her and the land fuel her. It bonded with her once again. Peace was back.

* * *

Natsumi was dying as Giroro held her. As soon as the castle freed her from her imprisonment as ruler, she didn't have the strength to live.

She was finally coming back to her old self.

"Giroro?" Natsumi looked up at her husband, stroking his cheek. "I did so many horrible things...And I was never able to find him...I never saved my brother."

Giroro looked apologetic. He knew she was dying, but he was also happy to see her back to her old self. Her eyes had life in them, even though it was her last moments.

Giroro heard people approaching. He felt the chilly breeze of the winter court. Perhaps they had pledged allegiance against the red queen and to be Kululu and Mois's allies.

A noble of the spring court was with them by the name of Dororo. So was a human/demon hybrid from the night court.

The high lord Fuyuki looked down at the dying Natsumi and sighed. "So...This is what happened to my sister."

Giroro looked up at him surprised. So Mois had been right that Fuyuki had been Natsumi's brother!

"Fuyuki...Have I found you in death? Or have I finally been able to find you and save you from the fae in the end?" Natsumi asked.

Fuyuki bent down to her, looking like he was very sorry for her. "I'm happy Natsumi. I became a fae and I rule over the winter court. I've always been happy, sis." He was crying.

Natsumi didn't have the strength to cry. "So...My whole quest was for nothing. I'm so worthless..." She realized.

"No, you aren't, my love!" Giroro told her.

"At least I will die for my sins. I'm happy to be myself in my final moments and not that monster...I was always meant to be human." Before Giroro could say anything more to Natsumi, she died.

Fuyuki held onto her hand before turning away. "My sister became the red queen, huh?"

"What are you doing here anyway?" Giroro asked, his face was coated with tears. After all the person he loved more than anything was dead.

"I heard Mois was fighting the red queen. I pledged to be her ally and help her so I came. It looks like she was successful though without me." Fuyuki didn't know what to say about his sister.

Dororo looked at Giroro with great pity. Along with Tamama.

"Giroro." Dororo spoke, "You aided the red queen in inhumane crimes. You know the punishment, right?"

"Death. I am to be executed." Giroro nodded. He didn't look scared, just done. Like he had given up. "That is fine. I...I want to be with my queen anyway." He looked at Natsumi. "I'll be with you soon." He whispered.

Dororo took out his sword as Giroro didn't put up any struggle, it was a slick job, as Giroro's head was taken off his body.

Giroro and Natsumi were finally gone from the world.

* * *

It took a few days for Kululu to heal and for the winter court to leave realizing that Mois was the rightful fae queen, bidding her a good day and wishing her the best of luck.

Kululu awoke in a bed just like he had when Mois had nursed him back to health after Saburo. Although he hadn't done much in the Natsumi fight and Mois had the real power he had been the moral support.

There was mostly silence between them as Mois watched Kululu as he sat in bed.

"So...What happens now?" He asked slowly.

Mois was quiet. She didn't answer him.

"You completed your quest. You defeated the great evil, reclaimed your kingdom." Kululu continued, "Ku, ku, ku. But do you win the lad in distress at the end of your tale?"

"Kululu...I can't." Mois looked at the ground. Now that everything was over and things were boiling down, Kululu's words were circling her head, his confession of love. Not that she didn't like it, and not that she didn't feel the same.

Kululu entwined their fingers and held her hand. "You can't what?" Kululu asked.

"Be with you." Mois told him. She didn't want to be break down when talking to him about this, but she felt herself crumple into a ball in his arms.

She hadn't cried as she fought her old friend Natsumi. But she was crying a bit now. And she desperately didn't want him to see it.

"Why not? You can come back with me to the night court and-"  
"I can't. I'm never allowed to leave this castle or my kingdom or the fae kingdom will be thrown into chaos." Mois told him, "You saw what happened when I left last time. And you belong in the night court, you're their high lord. So you can't leave. And I can't leave my kingdom. So..." Her lip was quivering. "This is the end."

Kululu didn't want it to be the end. After all that, all their adventures, they couldn't be together just because they had different homes and places they were meant to be? To never leave? "Do you not love me?"

That was the only way he was going to let them separate. If she didn't think she could love him, then there was no point in staying or trying to free Mois.

Mois was quiet, "It's not that. I really don't want you to take it the wrong way, Kululu, but..."

"I love you." Kululu whispered to her again. "I must have been doomed to fall for you ever since you saved me in that grove. Being with you changed me in a way, it made me a better person. I don't want to leave you again. I don't want to be who I once was. I'm not the same alone, I want to be together."

Mois stroked his cheek. She gave in and gave him one simple kiss on the cheek. "You might think it was our meeting that changed you for the better, but meeting you actually changed me too." She smiled at him, nuzzling up to him.

"I was always so lonely. I was charged with protecting something I knew nothing about, had never experienced and cared nothing for. But meeting you I got to experience so many things. I learned about things that were only fiction to me, you always were skeptical and had an eye of realism. Some people might have called you pessimistic in nature, but you showed me how things really are, you gave me logic and reason something I never had. I was just naive. I didn't see things like you did. So I think it's really you who changed me for the better."

Kululu hugged her, he embraced her lovingly, pulling her onto his lap. He didn't want to let go of her.

"I do love you, I really tried to stop myself from falling for you, I knew I had to keep my goals in mind, remember what would happen after the fleeting romance, but I fell in love with you anyway." Mois softly told him.

"That's enough of a speech for me." Kululu kissed her forehead. He knew she was telling him so much because this was a good-bye speech. But he didn't want to say good-bye. "Stop that. No more talking. No good-byes.

"But this is where we separate, Kululu. You let me embrace realism and truth. So I have to accept that this won't work out. I can't take you away from your people. We can't allow another Saburo to rule your kingdom." She kissed him again. Her kisses were short, as if they always missed him and he couldn't kiss back. They were good-byes.

"Stop." Kululu ordered.

"It's a pity you fell for something you could never have." Mois was apologetic, letting him hold her. She was shaking too. She didn't want to do this. "Night and day have always been opposites. They were not meant to meet. Same as our kingdoms. So once you leave...I doubt we'll ever meet again. The castle will hide itself once you leave." Mois paused for a moment, "And I'll be alone."

Kululu was silent for a moment. _She doesn't want to do this._ He reminded himself. _She's trapped here. She hates it._ He felt more pity for her than him. She clearly didn't want to be alone.

Everything she had said when she had been with him made it seem like she hated being alone.

"Fine." Kululu agreed, "But give me one more day with you. I'm a lovesick fool after all. I want to just live like we would if we could be together for one day. A day didn't hurt anyone after all, did it? Ku, ku, ku."

Kululu knew if he had one day, he could figure out a way to bypass fae rules and make it so they could see each other. He could scheme a way to get her out of this terrible situation.

"O-okay." Mois agreed, smiling. She kissed him lovingly. "You may have one last day."

Kululu smiled.

* * *

The first thing he did was spend an hour reading all the books in her library about her castle and the rules of her powers. He was a fast reader and a genius, so absorbing that information wasn't too hard for him.

He managed to figure out that if he somehow bonded their lands together like their soul bond she could step into his night court and give her power to the land through that to.

And he also figured out that just like any fae she was bound by some rules that were absolute. The laws of debt she was bound by, and the rules of eating food that belonged to someone else. Of course since they were all fae he couldn't actually imprison her in the night court if she ate night court food, but if she ate something that directly belonged to him...

He began to get a wicked evil scheme in his head.

 _Ku, ku, ku. Good thing I'm a big pervert. This kills two birds with one stone. But how the heck am I going to convince her to give me a blow job?_ That was technically eating him after all, and that would make Mois belong to him by the rules of eating. Sure it was a twisted loophole that he wasn't actually sure was real, but he could make it work.

He completely doubted that she'd do it if he just asked. She wouldn't let herself be tricked that easily.

That meant he was back to square one. Seducing her.

Was anything stopping her from saying no this time?

Kululu approached her as she was walking down the hall. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her passionately- after all that was what she had allowed him, to treat her like a lover for just one day.

"Kululu!" Mois squeaked, but leaned into his kiss. She tugged him down to kiss her more lovingly and longer.

Kululu picked her up in his arms. "Do you have any complaints whatsoever against me taking you to your bedroom right now and making love to you as passionately as I can?" Kululu was direct. He didn't really care about not being direct about this.

Mois turned bright pink. This was probably there was last chance to do this.

She looked into his eyes, "No." She answered honestly. She had no complaints. There was nothing more to fight against.

Kululu loved her, she loved Kululu, they'd be separated in a day anyway. She might as well enjoy her time with Kululu to the best of her abilities. Or else she'd regret it forever.

Kululu grinned broadly and carried her away to her bedroom.

* * *

Although Kululu knew he should be patient and calculated about this, he instead dropped Mois onto her bed and slammed against her kissing her passionately. He had wanted this for such a long time, and he had wanted her.

His lips were already watering, his body was already heated up with desire as he sucked on her lips, letting her bite on his as much as she wanted. Mois's hands were tangled in his hair and feeling up his chest, it was as if she had given up fighting her desires too.

 _This can't be a quick and desperate affair as we just give in to our sexual tension._ Kululu reminded himself as he tried to figure out how to take off Mois's shirt. He had many ideas as to how to take off her human clothing, but since that had all been some sort of illusion it wasn't as real as this clothing.

Eventually he moved Mois's arms upward and slipped off her shirt. She didn't have a bra this time to play with.

"K-kululu...Go slower, okay?" Mois begged, pulling him down to kiss her. "I want to do this, but...I want to enjoy and explore every bit of you. You've had your way with me way too much."

Kululu smiled, "As you wish." He moved away from her and sat up. He'd be more than happy to let her explore his body.

Although they were both fae now and she was perfect in all regard, Kululu still felt rather confident that Mois was attracted to him. After all she always moaned and squealed in such a way that he knew she wouldn't with anyone else. Also she didn't seem to see any problem with the fact that he had bad eyesight.

She had even put on his glasses playfully before, experimenting with them.

"I suppose I would love to explore this new body too. I haven't had much time to ogle it. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu nodded. Her face was mostly the same, well not her facial structure, but her eyes were exactly the same.

They had an unnatural golden color and they were large and innocent. Her smile was always very her, her expressions and movements having a sort of signature that Kululu didn't think anyone else could pull off.

Mois giggled. "Is it much different than my other form? I copied it off of that human girl I told you about, Asami."

They hadn't had much time to talk about the fact that Mois was a fae. But Kululu listened.

"It is different. You're a little shorter. But...I think you're even more lovely in this form. And it's not because you're a fae. It just seems more you. Although you were pretty in the other form too. I bet you could make anything pretty. And no I don't want a demonstration of that. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois giggled and climbed onto his lap. She no longer seemed shy about Kululu looking at her bare breasts, instead feeling a sort of satisfaction as he looked down and played with them lightly with his hand as she quickly undid the buttons on his shirt.

Throwing it on the ground with a bit more desperation than he had with her shirt, she moved on to feeling out his chest, as if she wanted to feel every little bit of it.

"You...You want to remember me perfectly after I leave, don't you?" Kululu asked.

Mois nodded.

"You've felt my chest a lot during this adventure. You've had a lot of opportunities too. You already know it quite well." He reassured her.

Mois continued feeling it, tracing it distracted. She was still a bit embarrassed about looking at it, but she wanted to. She never would have imaged that any point in this adventure would she be in bed with Kululu.

Kululu gently took one of Mois's hands off of his chest. _This isn't for me. It's only so I can get her to stay with me. It's completely calculated._ Kululu tried to tell himself, even though it totally was for him.

He moved her hand to the crotch of his pants, letting her brush him briefly. Usually during any sorts of sexual encounters between them, he didn't lead her to where he wanted her to touch him, usually he tried to make her crazy with desire so that she would beg him to screw her or something like that.

This time she had already agreed.

"You haven't really ever touched me here. If you don't explore it correctly you won't remember this part of me."

"I thought that was where we were getting to." Mois pointed out. She massaged him a bit though as he seemed to instruct her.

Kululu moaned loudly as if to tell her she was doing a good job.

Mois grinned, proudly. This was something she hadn't much seen before. She quickly discarded the rest of her clothes, stripping off her shorts and underwear and the rest of her things.

Kululu pulled off his own pants taking her cue, and tossing his underwear to the side. He held onto his dick, it wasn't fully hard but it was somewhat hard.

"So...What now?" Mois sat on the bed, trying not to eat him up with her eyes. She had never seen Kululu's cock, but her eyes rested on it for a brief moment.

She decided she liked how it looked and squeezed her legs together to try to keep the warmth there.

Kululu caressed Mois's cheek. "Well, I'm not completely hard. I can't be inside of you until I'm completely hard." He explained. _And it's very very hard not to be completely aroused. You don't know how difficult this is._ "And I assume the same can be said for you. So more foreplay. Ku, ku, ku."

Mois could guess what that meant, she noticed that Kululu's hand still hadn't left her breast. It was still fondling it. And she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted it to stop. She had other ideas where his hands could be at the moment, but she liked it flicking her nipple too and holding her. She wanted him to desperately beg him to start kissing her again, she never knew there would be a situation where she would need to ask for kisses from Kululu or touches.

She was about to pull herself onto Kululu's lap to continue grinding against him and making out with him, but he stopped her.

"Darling, I was wondering actually, if you could do a little favor for me?" His mouth twitched.

"Of course!" Mois smiled. She would love to do a favor for Kululu. "What?"

"Kiss me as much as you want, wherever you want." Kululu instructed.

Mois grinned. "Gladly." Kululu had done so much kissing torture on her, kissing her neck, her ears, her shoulders, that it was time to return the favor.

Slowly she covered his neck in kisses, trying to find spots that he might like. Subtly as Kululu placed his hand on her head, he tried to slowly, but not to her knowledge, direct her downward, so she was slowly kissing along his collarbone and slowly down her chest as if she was eating and licking him alive.

He tried to keep his calm as he felt himself moan so much against her kisses, especially once she was kissing along the tattoo of her name. Something was satisfying about Mois kissing that place.

Eventually though her lips went downward along his nipples, and eventually towards his abdomen and his belly button.

She was now on the floor sitting below him on the bed. Exactly as he wanted.

"Sorry!" She squeaked out, once she realized she had grazed against his dick which was now fully erect.

"No problem." Kululu hummed, he tilted her chin up to look at him, "You know, if you want, you can kiss my legs too...Or even there." He brought her hand back to his dick.

Mois's blushed "Would it feel nice if I kissed your dick?"

Kululu pretended to think for a moment, "Well imagine how you would feel if I started kissing you between the legs. What would you want me to do?"

"L-lick a lot..." Mois admitted. She nodded. "I got it. That's what you want. Uhhh..." She didn't exactly know how to do this.

Kululu smiled at her, she was so unfamiliar with these sorts of things. She probably hadn't even read many books on them. "Keep a steady grip on me." He directed. "And just do what you think you should, or want to."

He was getting her to do it. That was enough. She didn't have to be perfect at it. She just had to eat him. That was the goal.

Mois nodded and kissed along his inner thigh. She imagined that would be something she would want to happen to her. Sucking and licking at his thigh seemed to be the right tactic as Kululu led her hand to his dick, letting her have a firm grasp on it.

She hadn't really expected there to be balls there, so she played with them a bit too. She was a curious creature by nature and she wanted to feel them, rub on them.

Kululu hissed in pleasure. His face was completely red. This was too much for him.

Mois kissed the tip lightly.

"Good. Good..." Kululu tried to give her light directions as she licked the tip. He really liked that and she could tell, moving to the balls again she sucked a bit on them, kissing them.

She could hear Kululu moan and his hand was in her hair, tugging on her. She kissed his dick again since he had liked that so much, she saw that he liked licking too, so she licked all over it, on the under side, the tip, anywhere she could find until it was covered in her saliva.

Kululu was sweating and gasping. "Please...Mois..." He gasped.

"W-what?" Mois was confused. What did he want her to do. She loved seeing Kululu like this, so undone, it was something she had yet to explore. So anything he wished to continue this she was happy to do.

She liked making him happy after all.

"Put it in your mouth." Kululu begged.

Mois didn't really understand, but it was slick enough to fit. It was covered in his pre-cum and saliva and Kululu was drooling and waiting for it. So slowly she tried directing it into her mouth, moving every so now and then off of it, until she was able to ease the whole thing in.

Kululu moaned once it was in. He stoked her hair. "God." _Maybe this isn't just to bypass some rules. This feels amazing._

Mois let him stroke her hair as she sucked on him up and down. She kept looking up at his heavily aroused eyes to see if she was doing the right thing. That seemed to arouse Kululu even more.

Eventually he gripped her shoulder. "I'm going to-" He couldn't really finish his warning. He cummed right there in her mouth.

Mois was surprised, but let it happen, she slowly removed her mouth from Kululu and swallowed it. Kululu watched her the entire time.

"Well, I'm glad that's not the way we had to transfer energy. That would have been a hassle doing in public. Not to mention embarrassing." She tried to make a joke as she licked at her hands. Some of it had spilled. But it was rather yummy.

 _Well business is done. Now I can do what I please with her._ Kululu decided. Now he could make love to her as much as he wanted and as long as he wanted. He picked her up quickly and lay her on the bed.

"Did you like that?" Mois asked curiously.

Kululu nodded and started kissing along her body as much as he could. "Loved it. Now, I'm going to make love to you for the next several hours. Still no complaints?"

Mois shook her head. She had no complaints. And she liked that Kululu was kissing her again. His hands were no longer on her breast, instead they were moving to her clitoris and rubbing it just as she so desperately wanted.

She pulled Kululu closer to her so she could moan into his shoulder. Her hands scraped against his back.

"How much foreplay are we going to do? I want you inside of me." Mois begged.

"Well," Kululu continued rubbing, making sure to infuse his fingers with all sorts of wicked fae magic just to make it a little bit more intense for Mois.

He liked to hear her screaming his name after all. It was a sound he could very much get used to.

"I was thinking that I'd get you to cum at least twice before entering you. After that maybe we'll cuddle a bit before doing it again. Then I'm going to pay your favor back, by doing something much similar to you..." Kululu whispered to her.

Mois just moaned. "Do what you want to me."

Kululu was very happy to abide by that request.

* * *

As promised he did get her to cum twice before entering her. He liked just fingering her, and he wanted to make sure she was properly aroused and enjoying herself. That and he needed time to get hard again, not that it took an incredibly long time.

Eventually though Mois was begging him to become one with her and pulling him down onto her, he guided himself in gently and soon enough was thrusting against her like he had dreamed of so many times before.

Although Mois had talked a lot during the foreplay she didn't have as much energy during the first penetration, she just kind of moaned and held onto Kululu, doing as much as she could to move against him and let their pelvises meet. Sometimes she would utter a cry to slow done his pace or speed up or a whisper of his name, but most of the time she was just moaning.

Not that Kululu had many complaints against that. He was having a hard time keeping his cool too. _I'll tease her relentless once we have this separation thing behind us, I'll have a lot of time to get experienced with her body._

Soon enough Mois was scratching down his back and screaming his name. He cummed shortly after that.

* * *

They had been up most of the night since fairy's didn't formally require sleep, but eventually after several rounds of love making they had konked out. Even Kululu and he didn't like sleep as much as Mois.

He enjoyed sleeping in her bed and snuggling with her, but eventually the morning came.

Mois made sure to dress professionally as Kululu watched her dress with a smile.

"You shouldn't be smiling." She told him. "The day is over." She reminded. "That means...You have to leave as promised."

"Nope." Kululu said.

"W-what?" Mois was confused. She climbed onto bed to give him a good morning kiss. "I thought we went over this. You have to go back to the night court..."

"Last night, if I remember correctly," Kululu smiled, "You ate me. You devoured me whole, and by fae rules, you belong to me now for eating me, since my dick belongs to me." Kululu laughed. "It's meat but it's alive meat, attached to me. It still counts."

Mois paled. "That counts as food? That's eating?"

Kululu nodded. "And you were more than happy to do oral on me. Although if you didn't agree with that definition I was going to say that I was yours and belonged to you. Since I also ate you out last night. Ku, ku, ku."

"But...I can't leave. I can't go to the night court and belong to you!" Mois cried.

"Pity that you think you're trapped. Because our soul bond never broke. That means our pain is shared, and our power...And our responsibility. I've done some research and I think that because of these conditions you should be able to secure the fae kingdom and give it energy if you step in your castle or the night court." Kululu smiled at her.

Mois's mouth opened in shocked. Was she really free? Could she go to the night court with Kululu.

"We can switch between both of them. I fully intend to be with you forever anyway." Quickly jumping out of bed to slip his pants on so that when he proposed he wouldn't be completely naked, he leaned onto the ground on one knee.

"Mois, would you please come home with me? Would you be my wife?" Kululu asked, holding her hand. "Sorry I don't have a ring. I know that's a human custom and you're not human, but I'm sure you would have liked one anyway."

Mois nodded, to both the answer of the proposal and the desire to have a ring. She pulled herself down into Kululu's arms, letting out a cry in happiness. She was crying tears of joy.

"Of course I'll marry you! I'll be the queen of the night court." She kissed him on the cheeks. "We're closer than married people are anyway. We have a soul bond."

Kululu grinned. "True. But did you really think I would let you get away and not figure out a way to free you from your imprisonment?"

Mois shook her head. She knew Kululu would figure out a way one way or another. She was just glad to be with Kululu.

* * *

It didn't take long for Kululu to set up a wedding. He wanted to be married as soon as possible. It only took a few weeks to get everyone together.

It was easier to hold it in the night court than her castle. Her castle didn't exactly let many people into it after all.

Just as Kululu suspected she could fuel the land from the night court as well now thanks to their soul bond.

They had invited all the people they had come across on their journey. Fuyuki and Momoka who had been more than happy to attend, Dororo and Koyuki the elf, Keroro much to Kululu's disapproval and Tamama, who had decided to stay a human after all and run away with Keroro.

They were all there. And although Kululu had looked into Mois's human friend Asami being invited it had turned out that she had slept for five hundred years roughly and the human who had helped her become healthy again was long gone.

Kululu waited at the alter as Mois walked up to him in her wedding dress. Her iron soldiers had not been invited to their wedding.

Her dress was lovely though, made with fine silk fae materials. Although she wasn't actually a tailor she had insisted on stitching her dress herself. And she had done a lovely job.

Kululu smiled at her when he saw her. He kind of tuned out whatever vows the priest was saying.

Mois looked at Kululu, holding his hands and holding onto flowers that didn't cause one to sleep. Everything was perfect, it was everything she had ever dreamed.

 _I know a lot of bad things happened, but they all must have happened for a reason. I'm glad that I met Kululu, I'm glad that I fell asleep and I'm glad I was able to save him._

 _Maybe I am like a fairy tale. After all I went on an epic quest, defeated a great evil, and then won my lover! I got my happy ending._ Mois smiled.

She was no longer lost in a world she wasn't able to be in, despite secretly being a part of it. She was so glad that she had found her place by Kululu's side.

"I do." She said loudly before throwing herself at Kululu, pulling her arms around him and ravaging his lips.

Kululu kissed back, but he slowly pulled her off. "I haven't said I do yet. Impatient much?" He teased. "But I do. I'll take you forever as my wife, no matter what happens. I love you."

Mois grinned and let him kiss her again, not quite enthusiastically. She forgot to throw her bouquet. Kululu threw it for her.

Tamama caught it.

"Aww man, I wanted to live the dangerous love affair life forever." He moped. "Now we have to get married Keroro."

"I don't think that's how it goes." Keroro reminded him.

"Don't argue with the flowers!" Tamama growled. Actually he wanted to get married, but pretending he was unhappy with the idea was the only way to get Keroro to agree.

Keroro sighed. Tamama was probably right.

Kululu kissed Mois again. It wasn't for a soul bond or because she was cute. It was just because he loved her. And he'd love her until time itself ended.

"You're not my little human anymore. You're my little fae." Kululu smiled.

"I'm your queen." Mois said, "In more ways than one. I'm the ruler of all the fae and I'm your queen of the night court."

"I guess that means this will be the first time a demon gets to be king of the fae." Kululu shrugged, "Enough talking. I want to ravage you again."

"But...Guests..." Mois pointed out.

"Let's go. You're never leaving my world again." Kululu reminded.

And Mois was okay with that. She liked being in Kululu's world. It was where she was meant to be.

They shared one last kiss, before rushing off to leave the guests to themselves. They needed to be in each others arms again, it was as if they needed as much contact as possible.

It wouldn't be a surprise if they did.

They were completely happy and content for the rest of time itself. And their kisses always shared a magic sort of bound.

* * *

 **This was the last chapter of the story. Overall I enjoyed writing it, it was easier to focus on two characters than a lot of characters. However I feel like because of breaks some of the chapters didn't have the detail that the rest of the chapters did, or I wrote too many chapters in one day like this chapter. I wonder if I reread it if it will have the same tone throughout the fic. Oh well, it was fun to write.**

 **Sorry the smut wasn't as detailed as it should be. I cut things short because I wanted to finish the chapter and this is fanfiction and not archiveofourown. I need some references for how to write kissing details and how things should feel and be described.**

 **Also, I realize that some of the times are inconsistent (which was a problem not in my rough draft but just a mistake as a writer.) Canon in this fic is that Mois came out of power five hundred years ago, and Kululu came out of power four hundred years ago.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the fic.**

 **Description of who was who if you forgot.**

 **Fuyuki-Former human and high lord of the winter court, Momoka's husband.**

 **Momoka-Former human noble and high lady of the winter court. Her butler Paul killed the legitimate high lord and she took over.**

 **Dororo-Last noble of the spring court. He worked as an assassin of the night court for some time.**

 **Saburo-Kululu's second in command, previous high lord of the night court who usurped Kululu.**

 **Natsumi-Former human who was on a quest to save her brother, became the red queen and ruler of the fae lands for some time.**

 **Giroro-High lord of the summer court.**

 **Kululu-High lord of the Night court. 1/4th demon.**

 **Tamama- Human, 1/4th demon, related to Kululu distantly and someone Kululu imprisoned in the night court.**

 **Keroro-Human wizard who used to journey with Natsumi.**

 **Koyuki-Elf who runs an inn.**

 **Angol Mois-Posing as a lost human, truthfully rightful ruler of the fae lands.**

 **Please review! I hope you enjoyed this fic!**


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